Geology

Oquirrh

Utah

of the 

Mountains,

by Edwin W. Tooker

Open-File Report OF 99-571 

1999

This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with 

U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards or with the North American 

Stratigraphic Code. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for 

descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. 

Government

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Menlo Park, CA,
CONTENTS

Page

Abstract 7 

Introduction 11 

Purpose of the report 11 

Location, geomorphic features, and access 13 

Acknowledgments 15 

Geologic setting of north-central Utah 17 

Precambrian basement terrane and the Uinta trend 17 

Paleozoic depositional basins 20 

Jurassic orogeny 22 

Cretaceous Sevier orogeny 23 

Formation of the Cenozoic Basin and Range province 24 

Tertiary igneous activity and ore deposits 25 

Uplift in the Oquirrh Mountains along the Uinta trend during the period of

igneous activity 26 

Quaternary uplift and Pleistocene glaciation 27 

Recognition of nappes in the Oquirrh Mountains . 27 

Location of the Oquirrh Mountains nappes . 28 

Hinterland source of the nappes 29 

Movement of the nappes 29 

Convergence of nappes in the area of the future Oquirrh Mountains 30 

Stratigraphic features of the main nappes 31 

Pass Canyon nappe 32 

Bingham nappe 33 

Rogers Canyon nappe 34 

Significance of variations in nappe sedimentary rocks 35 

Structural features of nappes 35 

Main and secondary folds 36

Faults 37

Sole and imbricate thrusts 37

Tanscurrent or tear faults 38
Tensional and other normal faults of thrust origin 39 

Basin and Range normal faults 39 

Igneous rocks associated with the nappes 40 

Geology, correlation, and economic importance of typical nappe rocks in

the Oquirrh Mountains 41

Pass Canyon nappe 42

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 44

Dry Fork unit of looker and Roberts (1988) 45

Flood Canyon unit of looker and Roberts (1988) 46

__ _ _ _ _ _ _________ - _ - __ - ___ _ __ _ ____ _____________ ___ _ ______ ___ A*7 __j. i

AQ "~ ~" "~ T"O

 _ _ _ _ .___ _ _ _ .__ _____ ________ _ .__ __ _________________ __ ____ *-|-^7 AQ

Location and types of igneous intrusive and extrusive rocks 51 

Associated mineral resources 52 

Barneys Canyon and Melco mines 52 

Construction materials 53

rn IlCllll QTTI n lldL/UC C-T^T^-t* _____ _...-..-..-..-..-. - -.-_.-_.--.-_.-_.-_.--- .................. ------------------- ._, ._, __--_-_-_-_--_-_--_----- ..................... ^j^j ^.A

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 55 

Lower Paleozoic formations 55 

Manning Canyon Shale. 59 

Upper Paleozoic formations 59 

Correlation with nappes in adjoining ranges composed of

the Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks 61

f O1QS.

Location and types of intrusive and extrusive rocks 70
Bingham mining district area 70 

Middle Canyon-Soldier Creek areas 71 

Lion Hill and Porphyry Knob areas 72 

Ophir-Mercur mining district areas 72

Associated mineral resources 73 

Bingham mining district 74 

Mercur mining district 74 

Ophir mining district. 75 

Production from the Bingham, Mercur, and Ophir mining districts 75 

Industrial minerals and construction materials 75 

Rogers Canyon nappe 76

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 76 

Lower Paleozoic Green Ravine Formations 77 

Oquirrh Group (Upper Paleozoic) formations. 78 

Grandeur Member of the Park City Formation (Permian) 80

Structural features 80 

Folds 81

Faults 82

Proposed formation of Rogers Canyon nappe structures 83

Location and types of igneous rocks 85

Associated mineral resources 85 

South Mountain nappe 86

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 87 

Rush Lake unit of looker and Roberts (1988) 88

Salvation unit of looker and Roberts (1988) 88

South Peak unit of looker and Roberts (1988) 89

Quaternary deposits 89
Regional correlations of formational units 90

Structural features 92

Folds-------------- 92

Faults 93

Location and types of igneous rocks 95

Associated mineral resources 96

Fivemile Pass nappe 97

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 98

Mercur limestone member, Great Blue Limestone 98

Manning Canyon Shale 99

Structural features 99

Folds----------------- 99

Faults 100

Location and types of igneous rocks 100

Associated mineral resources 101

References cited 102

f\l APPFNDTY i i-a iJ-^lvV ________ ____ 

-  ___________ 11^ 1 U

1. Columnar section showing the lithology of Permian sedimentary rocks by Welsh and James (1961) 113

2. Measured sections of (A) the South Peak, (B) Salvation, and (C) Rush Lake formational units of Tooker 

and Roberts (1988) that constitute the Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks in the South Mountain

 --- - __ » _». -_ - _ _ - . ____________ ,__ __ iz* 177 /

1. Location of the Oquirrh Mountains, its 7 1/2-minute topographic quadrangles, and the

main mining districts in the range. 127

2. North-central Utah locations of the Oquirrh Mountains, the Basin and Range and Rocky Mountains

physiographic provinces, and the inferred axial trace of the Uinta trend 128
3. Inferred locations of the Paleozoic miogeoclinal deposition basins on the craton platform, the North 

American craton and Antler erogenic belt sediment source areas, and the inferred directions of 

nappe movement to their foreland depositional sites. 129

4. Generalized columnar sections correlating Paleozoic formations in foreland nappes in the Oquirrh

and neighboring ranges . - - 1 30

5. Location of the Sevier foreland and basement promontory along the axis of the Uinta trend. 131 

6 Diagram showing the inferred directions and sequence of Sevier-age nappe movements in the

Oquirrh Mountains. 132

7. Map showing the locations of the Pass Canyon, Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain,

and Fivemile Pass nappes in the Oquirrh Mountain 133

8. Generalized geologic map of the Pass Canyon nappe 1 34

9. Generalized geologic map of the Bingham nappe. 135

10. Generalized columnar section showing the lithology of the Lower and Upper Paleozoic formations in

1 1 Generalized map showing the distribution of igneous rocks in the Pass Canyon, Bingham, and

South Mountain nappes in the central Oquirrh and South Mountains, Utah. 137

12. Generalized map showing the distribution of igneous rocks in the Bingham nappe, southern Oquirrh

iviuiiiiumid) TVTrMint^iTic T v Tt^iH uni _-.__.. _ __-____-___«__..-____________ __-___ ___« ._ ________..___..__.___..___ _ £ 1 JQ^S

13. Generalized geologic map of the Rogers Canyon nappe. 139

14. Generalized geologic map of the South Mountain nappe. 140

15. Comparison of columnar sections of common-age parts of the South Mountain and Bingham nappes. 141

16. Generalized geologic map of the Fivemile Pass nappe. 142

TABLES ________________________________________________________ 143

1. Igneous rock occurrences in the Oquirrh Mountain nappes 143

2. Lithology of Lower Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe 144

3. Lithology of Upper Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe 146

4. Production of base and precious metals in the Bingham, Mercur, Stockton, and Ophir mining districts

in the Bingham and South Mountain nappes 147

5. Lithology of formations in the Rogers Canyon nappe. - - 148

6. Lithology of formations in the South Mountain nappe. 150
GEOLOGY OF THE OQUIRRH MOUNTAINS, UTAH

by EDWIN W. TOOKER

Abstract

The Oquirrh Mountains are located in north-central Utah, immediately south of the 

Great Salt Lake, in the easternmost part of the Basin and Range physiographic province. 

The range consists of northerly-trending aligned peaks 56 kilometers long flanked on the 

west by Tooele and Rush Valleys and on the east by Jordan and Cedar Valleys. The range 

hosts several of the more prominent base- and precious-metal and disseminated-gold 

mining areas in the western United States. The 130-year old Bingham porphyry copper 

mining district, which is of world-class magnitude in the central part of the range, is still 

active. The Mercur mining district, which has recently become inactive, was one of the 

first of the new-type disseminated gold deposits; the Ophir and Stockton base- and 

precious-metal mining districts are inactive at present. The newest active mining areas in 

the range are the Barneys Canyon and adjoining Melco disseminated gold deposits, 

considered to be part of the Bingham mining district by the operator. The Oquirrh 

Mountains and its flanks also contain a number of industrial mineral resources useful in the 

infrastructure construction and the smelting industries. Here-to-fore, much information 

about these mining areas is scattered in numerous publications and has not been placed in a 

current geologic framework that permits construction of a unified regional deposit model of 

use in further exploration in the range and elsewhere. This report summarizes regional 

geologic data as a basis for added resource perspective, identifies as yet unresolved 

controversial geological interpretations, and is a platform on which to frame future geologic 

research and exploration. A geologic map of the range (Tooker and Roberts, 1998) is 

available at a scale of 1:50,000 .

The present stratigraphic and structural regime, and the siting of the mineral 

deposits in the Oquirrh Mountains are the result of a long geologic history. An underlying 

Precambrian craton consists of a Proterozoic terrane believed to be accreted onto an 

Archean terrane along a basement suture zone called the Uinta trend. This zone is 

recognized by its Paleozoic stratigraphic features, evidence of intermittent local structural 

uplift and erosion, and an alignment of Tertiary intrusives and spatially related ore deposits.

7
Paleozoic sedimentary rocks were deposited in westernmost Utah and eastern 

Nevada on an irregular, broad, gradually-, and differentially-subsiding, shallowlysubmerged craton shelf athwart the Uinta trend zone. Debris shed into two basins 

separated by the trend, the Oquirrh on the south and Sublette on the north, was from the 

craton to the east, the Antler orogenic zone on the west, and locally uplifted parts of the 

trend itself. The composition of the miogeoclinal sedimentary rocks varied during time as 

well as along the shelf, depending on the relative contributions of source sediments and 

structural events along the Uinta trend. In general the rocks now exposed in the Oquirrh 

Mountains are thick accumulations of clastic carbonaceous-quartz quartzite, shale, 

limestone, and dolomite of Lower and Upper Paleozoic ages. The carbonate rocks 

generally contain an abundant fauna of macro- and micro-fossils. A much thinner sequence 

of comparable rocks deposited on the craton shelf is exposed in the neighboring Wasatch 

Mountains to the east.

The anomalous juxtapositions of compositionally comparable thick and thin 

miogeosynclinal shelf rocks in the Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains is recognized by Baker 

and others (1949) as the result of decollement thrust faulting during the Late Cretaceous 

Sevier orogeny. The Oquirrh Mountains were further deformed during the late Cenozoic 

extension of the area to form the Basin and Range region. The present topography of the 

range is the result of accelerated uplift and erosion during the Tertiary and Pleistocene.

Detailed mapping in the Oquirrh Mountains reveals that Sevier thrust faults delimit 

five distinct nappes, the Pass Canyon, Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain, and 

Fivemile Pass nappes, that moved sequentially along differing paths from a western 

hinterland to their foreland in the east. The nappes converged on a basement uplifted 

buttress along the Uinta trend, producing distinctive folds and imbricate thrusts. The 

nappes are roughly similar stratigraphically, but are composed of individually distinctive 

sedimentary rock sequences. Intrusive and extrusive rocks, and, in some cases, co-located 

base- and precious-metal ore deposits occur in the range along the trace of the Uinta trend.

The Pass Canyon nappe, located in the north central part of the Oquirrh Mountains, 

was the first nappe to arrive in the foreland. It moved generally eastward onto the buttress 

from a hinterland that was on or near the Uinta trend. The sole thrust is not exposed in the 

range because of overlap by the later emplacements of the Rogers Canyon nappe from the 

north and Bingham nappe from the south. The basal thrust of the Pass Canyon nappe may

8
be an upper imbrication or peripheral part of the Nebo-Charleston nappe, identified in the 

Wasatch Mountains by Baker and others (1949), that was separated from the main part of 

the Nebo-Charleston nappe by a major tear fault. Two informal stratigraphic units 

composing the nappe are recognized as the older Dry Fork (Pennsylvanian and Permian) 

and younger Flood Canyon (Permian) units of Tooker and Roberts (1988). Detailed 

stratigraphic relations in the nappe are incomplete owing to its great structural complexity, 

local alteration, and the presence of only sparse Wolfcamp-age fossils. Joining contacts 

seem to be along imbricate thrust, tear, and normal faults. The Barneys Canyon and Melco 

disseminated gold deposits are located in the Pass Canyon nappe.

The Bingham nappe, located in the southern half of the range, is the largest thrust 

plate. It was the next nappe to move generally eastward on the Midas thrust from its 

Oquirrh basin hinterland to its foreland site to overlie the Uinta trend buttress and Pass 

Canyon nappe. The sole thrust also is not exposed in the Oquirrh Mountains, having been 

overridden by the Rogers Canyon nappe and concealed by normal faults. The nappe 

contains a 7,989 m-thick Paleozoic stratigraphic section, ranging from the Cambrian Tintic 

Quartzite to the Pennsylvanian Bingham Mine Formation of the Oquirrh Group. The rocks 

are predominantly clean, well-sorted clastic carbonates, argillaceous limestones, calcareous 

sandstones, and quartzites. They have been deformed into through-going main and more 

local secondary folds by the sole Midas and several imbricate thrusts in the upper part of 

the nappe. Tear faults segment the folds locally, and normal faults developed during the 

Cretaceous Sevier thrusts provided openings locally for the introduction of magma and 

hydrothermal solutions. Some of these faults were reactivated and enlarged during the 

period of Basin and Range extensional tectonics. The Bingham mining district ores are 

located in the locally structurally complex leading edges of the sole Midas thrust. The 

deposits are composed of base- and precious-metal disseminations in porphyritic intrusives 

and in veins and replacements in the adjoining Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Group's formations. 

Disseminated gold in the Mercur mining district is located in Upper Mississippian carbonate 

rocks overlying the imbricate Manning thrust. The vein and replacement deposits in the 

Ophir mining district are localized mainly along normal faults and in replaced carbonate 

rocks of lower Paleozoic formations, which are closely associated with local structures 

associated with the Manning main and related secondary thrusts.

The Rogers Canyon nappe, located in the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountains, 

was the third detached plate that moved on the North Oquirrh thrust southeastward from its 

Sublette basin hinterland onto the Uinta trend buttress. The nappe contains a 3,810 m-thick
stratigraphic section beginning with the Mississippian Green Ravine Formation, overlain 

by the Oquirrh Group, and topped by the Grandeur Member of the Permian Park City 

Formation. The sedimentary rocks are mainly carbonate- and quartzite-rich, and are 

grossly similar to comparably-aged rocks in the Bingham nappe and in Oquirrh Group 

rocks in the nappes comprising neighboring ranges. The rocks are compressed into main 

and secondary folds on the western side of the range, and smaller-amplitude folds in the 

imbricate structures in the nappe on the eastern side. No ore deposits are found in the 

nappe.

The South Mountain nappe, located on the western side of the central part of the 

range, was next to be emplaced against the Uinta trend from its Oquirrh basin hinterland 

south-southwest of the range; it overlaps the Bingham nappe. The stratigraphic section is 

4,087 m thick and includes the Pennsylvania and Permian Oquirrh Group. It is divided 

into three informal formational units the Rush Lake, Salvation, and South Peak units of 

Tooker and Roberts (1992). The structure of the eastern half of the nappe, which hosts the 

base- and precious-metal Stockton mining district, is on the upper plate of the Stockton 

thrust. The eastern half of the nappe is tightly folded, cut by imbricate thrusts and intruded 

by numerous monzonitic plugs, dikes and sills. The western half of the nappe on South 

Mountain is a main fold that is separated from the eastern half by the Rush Valley tear fault. 

The west part of the nappe is believed to lie on the TAD thrust, an imbricate fault that 

moved the plate northward, probably overlapping the eastern part of the nappe.

The Fivemile Pass nappe at the south end of the range is the smallest areally and 

probably the latest to be emplaced from its Oquirrh basin hinterland source area southsouthwest of the range . The nappe contains folded and faulted Mississippian carbonate 

rocks of the Manning Canyon Shale and the upper part of the Great Blue Limestone 

formations whose true thicknesses could not be determined. The nappe represents a 

stratigraphic facies change in these formations that is intermediate between those that occur 

in the Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains and those found in the East Tintic 

Mountains to the south. The Mercur limestone member of Gordon, Tooker, and Dutro 

(2000) of the Great Blue Limestone hosts the unique variscite mineral locality at the south 

end of the Oquirrh Mountains. Extensive brick clay deposits, in clay-shale beds in the 

Mercur member of the Great Blue Limestone were mined in past years at the south end of 

the range.

10
INTRODUCTION

The Oquirrh Mountains are the site of one of the most prominent base- and precious-metal 

and disseminated gold mining areas of western United States (fig. 1); and through more than 130 

years this range has been an area rich in the history of mining and in providing mineral resources 

that supported the growth of an expanding Nation. The Oquirrh Mountains continue to supply 

many of the metals and industrial minerals necessary for current and future local and national 

growth, mainly from five mining areas the Bingham mining district, which includes the nearby 

Barneys Canyon and Melco mines, and the Mercur, Ophir, and Stockton mining districts. Much is 

known about the geology of the ore deposits in these districts and of the Oquirrh Mountains, but 

that information is dispersed individually in numerous places, and has not been fully integrated or 

brought up to date in terms of recent geologic theory. This summary and status of knowledge of 

the geology of the range provides a current perspective of the stratigraphy and structures of the 

host environments for the occurrence of these mineral resources, based on long-term investigations 

by the author and his many U.S. Geological Survey colleagues. 

FIGURE 1, NEAR HERE.

Purpose of the Report

Continuing world-class mining activity and the great interest in gold exploration in the 

Oquirrh Mountains are primary bases for compiling the geologic information derived from recent 

geologic mapping and related research efforts by the USGS, mining companies, and university 

faculty and students. The science of geology has also grown during the 30 years or so with the 

advent of "plate tectonics," as well as of more sophisticated geologic field and laboratory 

technology. Some descriptions of the geology of individual parts of the range are as much as 10- 

12 decades old (Murphy, 1872; Spurr, 1895; Boutwell,1905a and 1905b; Wegg, 1915; Beeson, 

1917 and 1925; Hunt, 1924 and 1933; Peterson, 1924; Gilluly, 1932; and Hammond, 1961); the 

most recent discussion of the geology of the whole Oquirrh Mountains is more than 75 years old 

(Butler, 1920). However, a number of individually cited more recent geologic descriptions of

1 1
local (mining) areas within the range, many prepared as field trip guides that were published by the 

mining companies, university faculty and student thesis research, or by scientific societies, provide 

an additional growing source of data (Peacock, 1948; Field, 1966; James and others, 1961b; Cook 

1961; Einaudi, 1975; James, 1978 and 1982, Wilson and Parry (1995) and Presnell and Parry, 

(1996).

This report is the author's perspective for a regional geologic description of the Oquirrh 

Mountains area including some controversial unresolved differences of geologic analysis. The 

report thus may become a platform of information on which to frame future geologic research and 

exploration activities. As such, this report primarily describes and summarizes the regional 

geologic relations observed by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maps of all or parts of fourteen 

7 1/2-min. quadrangles (at a 1:24,000 scale) 1 , which cover the Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 1). A 

compilation of these maps (Tooker, and Roberts, 1998) at 1:50,000 scale provides a modern 

geologic foundation on which to consider the geological aspects of ore deposits in the context of 

their local Oquirrh Mountains and broader regional settings.

Geophysical and geochemical studies have also been conducted by the USGS (Mabey, 

1960; Cook and Berg, 1961; Mabey and others, 1963, 1964, 1978; Zietz and others, 1976; and 

Stein and others, 1989), mining companies (Kornze and others 1985), the Utah Geological Survey 

(Lenzi, 1971), and university students and instructors (Wilson and Parry, 1994). During this 

same period, several mining company exploration and development programs and a number of 

university faculty geologic research programs and student theses have been completed (Wilson, 

1986, Wilson and Parry, 1995, and Presnell and Parry (1996); these results are added to an 

emerging complex regional geologic model.

More detailed geologic and geophysical studies completed within the mining districts, 

particularly by the mine staffs of Kennecott Corporation (Babcock and others, 1995) and Barrick

1 Mills Junction, Farnsworth Peak (formerly Garfield), Magna, Tooele, Bingham 

Canyon, Lark, Stockton, Lowe Peak, Tickville Springs, South Mountain, Ophir, 

and Mercur.

12
Mercur Gold Mines, Inc. (Kornze and others, 1985) have continued since the completion of the 

USGS's regional mapping research. These resulting three-dimensional data amplify or modify 

some of the more generalized interpretations permitted by an original two-dimensional surface 

mapping examination.

One may expect that when geologists with dissimilar perspectives, objectives, and 

experiences examine an area, a number of differences in the interpretation of some geologic 

observations are apt to occur; the alternative interpretations developed by others in individual 

studies of the Oquirrh Mountains are noted in this report. The geologic descriptions and 

interpretations that follow are the author's responsibility. Such diversity of opinion eventually 

leads geologists to conceive the critical research that results in the resolution of these differences. 

Contribution to that resolution is the ultimate objective of this report.

Location, Geomorphic Features, and Access

The Oquirrh Mountains, which rise at the south end of the Great Salt Lake, about 25 km 

west of Salt Lake City, Utah, constitute the first of a series of north-trending mountain ranges in 

the eastern part of the Basin and Range province in west-central Utah, along its border with the 

Northern Rocky Mountains province (fig. 2). Stretching 56 km due south from the south end of 

the Great Salt Lake, the range ends at Fivemile Pass, which separates the Oquirrh Mountains from 

the Thorpe Hills. Antelope Island, which is aligned with the Oquirrh Mountains, lies 14 km to the 

north within the Great Salt Lake. The Wasatch fault, a prominent north-trending structure along 

the western margin of the Wasatch Range, is the boundary separating the northern Rocky 

Mountains province on the east and the Great Basin part of the Basin and Range province 

characterized by internal drainage.which is on the west. The Great Salt Lake at the eastern edge of 

the basin is the vestigial remnant of a large Pleistocene freshwater body, Lake Bonneville. 

FIGURE 2, NEAR HERE.

The Oquirrh Mountains consist of a series of coalescing northerly-aligned peaks that rise 

abruptly from the shore of Great Salt Lake, at about 1,280 m (4,200 ft) and rises up to 2,852 m

13
(9,356 ft) elevation at Nelson Peak in the northern part of the range (fig. 2). The ridge line drops 

down to 2,499 m (8,200 ft) in the vicinity of the Bingham mine in the central part of the range, 

only to rise to its highest point at Lowe Peak, elevation 3,228 m (10,589 ft), in the southern part 

of the range, and thence descending gradually to Fivemile Pass at about 1,676 m (5,500 ft).

Two topographically lower-lying, east-west-trending ranges flank the central part of the 

Oquirrh Mountains. South Mountain, a separate narrow outlier, trends west from the western side 

of the Oquirrh Mountains; similarly, the western Traverse Mountains join the Oquirrh range 

directly on its east side. However, these lower mountain masses are integral and geologically 

compatible adjuncts to the Oquirrh Mountains. The highest and broadest part of the Oquirrh 

Mountains is aligned with the east-west crossing axis of the western Traverse Mountains and 

South Mountain. Jordan and Cedar Valleys, which flank the range on the east side, are separated 

by the Traverse Mountains, and Tooele and Rush Valleys, which lie on the western side, are 

separated by South Mountain.

The Oquirrh Mountains contain five base- and precious-metal mining districts. The 

Bingham mining district, which is located about 32 km southwest of Salt Lake City, in the central 

part of the range, is of world-class magnitude (fig. 2). The recently-developed Barneys Canyon 

and Melco mines lie about 6 km north of the Bingham mine. The Mercur (and the adjoining 

Sunshine mining area), Ophir, and Stockton mining districts are located on the west side in the 

southern half of the range. Mercur lies 59 km southwest of Salt Lake City, and the Ophir and 

Stockton districts are 7 and 18 km, respectively, north-northwest of Mercur.

The Oquirrh Mountains also contain industrial mineral resources in addition to extensive 

deposits of sand and gravel, which occur irregularly in alluvial fans and lake-shore bar and spit 

deposit about the range. Calcite oolite sands [for flux in smelting] were once mined about the 

southern shores of the Great Salt Lake and brick clay and limestone [also for flux] have been 

mined in the southern parts of the Oquirrh Mountains; a small deposit of the semi-precious mineral 

variscite also occurs in limestone at the south end of the range.

14
Access to the Oquirrh Mountains across its northern and eastern sides is by U.S. Interstate 

Highways 80 and 25. A number of Utah State Highways (36, 73, 111, 201, 48, 71, and 68) 

surround the eastern, southern, and western flanks of the Oquirrh Mountains. The Western Pacific 

Railroad mainline from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, California, passes the north end, and the 

Union Pacific Railroad mainline to Los Angeles California, also passes the north end and trends 

southward along the west side of the range. The Kennecott ore railroad along the eastern side 

connects the Bingham mine and mill installations with the copper smelting and refining complex at 

the north end of the range, and a spur line of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad connects the 

mine with Salt Lake City.

Acknowledgments

Knowledge of the geology of the Oquirrh Mountains has evolved during more than 130 

years, and each step along the way was made possible owing to the dedication, ingenuity, and 

persistent efforts of a long list of previous investigators. Earlier U.S. Geological Survey and 

mining company studies of the range and its mining districts by J.E. Spurr, J.M. Boutwell, 

JJ. Beeson, B.S. Butler, R.N. Hunt, and James Gilluly provide much of the historical 

background as well as early geological interpretations on which this survey is built. Growing 

recognition of the complexity of the subject still challenges us today. Ralph J. Roberts conceived 

and organized the Oquirrh Mountains studies reported here, but was called away midway to 

develop a USGS heavy metals program, entrusting me to complete our studies of the range. His 

keen scientific understanding and enthusiasm set the direction and tone for the project and this 

report. I also gratefully recognize the assistance and encouragement of U.S. Geological Survey 

colleagues W.J. Moore, J.A. Briskey, Jr., R.W. Kopf, T.L. Vercoutere, and D.B. Vander 

Meulen for their geologic mapping and structural and stratigraphic interpretations. W.J. Moore 

and E.H. McKee have classified and dated the igneous rocks. Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., R.C. 

Douglass, M.E. Taylor, E.L. Yochelson, H.M. Duncan, J.T. Dutro, Jr., K.S. Schindler, S.H. 

Mamay, and W. J. Sando made the paleontologic identifications, indicated the chronology of

15
sedimentary rocks, and indicated regional stratigraphic correlations. D.R. Mabey conducted 

geophysical investigations in the range.

I also wish to acknowledge the recently published company-sponsored geologic studies in 

the greater Bingham mining district, in particular those of A.H. James, W. H. Smith, George 

Lanier, W.C. Peters, R.E. Bray, A. J. Swensen, B.F. Stringham, and I.E. Welsh of Kennecott; 

H.G. Peacock, M.T. Einaudi, W. W. Atkinson, Jr, and WJ. Garmoe of the former Anaconda 

Minerals Company; and R.N. Hunt, R. D. Rubright, and O.J. Hart of U.V. Industries (formerly 

the U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company). In similar fashion, I am indebted to L.D. 

Kornze, W.J. Tafuri, Tracy Shrier, T.B. Faddies, and R.G. Blair of American Barrick (formerly 

Getty Mining) for field visits, conferences, and published data on the geology of the Mercur 

mining district, and to F.W. Bauman, Touchstone Resources, for data on the Sunshine mining 

area. The report by W.L. Gunter, J.W. Hammitt, R.C. Babcock, Jr., and T.R. Gibson of the 

Kennecott Corporation and Kennecott Exploration Company., and R.D. Presnell, Univ. of Utah, 

and the recent summary by R.C. Babcock, Jr., G.H. Ballantyne, and C.H. Phillips of Kennecott 

are the main recent sources of information about the Bingham and Barneys Canyon mines.

Permission for entrance of U.S. Geological Survey personnel on privately controlled lands 

by the television transmission, livestock grazing, and mining companies is also acknowledged with 

appreciation. Other acknowledged contributions of data on the geology and ore deposits in the 

Oquirrh Mountains, which are derived from a number of university and individuals' studies, are 

summarized in this report and by Tooker (1998); Gordon, Tooker and Dutro, (2000) and Tooker 

and Roberts (1998). The geologic conclusions and interpretations in this report, derived from 

those listed above, remains the responsibility of the author.

16
GEOLOGIC SETTING OF NORTH-CENTRAL UTAH

The geologic features of the region are the result of a complex sequence of events 

beginning with the formation of a Precambrian craton and shelf on the western edge of the North 

American continent (Atwater, 1970, Christiansen and Lipman, 1972, Burchfield and Hickox, 

1972; Coney, 1978; Link, 1993; and Reed and others, 1993). Paleozoic miogeoclinal sediments 

were deposited on a slowly subsiding craton shelf west of the Wasatch Mountains (Stewart and 

Poole, 1974). These strata were intruded in eastern Nevada and Western Utah by Jurassic plutons 

that metamorphosed the adjacent host sedimentary rocks and induced local thrust faulting 

(Allmendinger and others, 1984). The rocks subsequently were moved eastward during the late 

Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny on thrust faults to become folded and faulted nappes (Armstrong, 

1968b; Tooker, 1970; Royse and others, 1975; Tooker, 1983; Price, 1989; and DeCelles and 

others, 1995). The structures and juxtaposed sedimentary rock sequences created became the core 

of the Oquirrh Mountains. Block faulting and erosion during a late Cenozoic period of extension 

formed the Basin and Range physiographic province (Gilbert, 1928, Stewart, 1978; Best and 

Hamblin, 1978, and Smith and Bruhn, 1984) and the Oquirrh Mountains. Tertiary igneous 

intrusive and extrusive rocks were introduced from crustal sources, and associated hydrothermal 

ore-bearing solutions formed the base- and precious-metal ore deposits (Peters and others, 1966). 

Uplift and accelerated erosion in the central Oquirrh Mountains during the early part of the 

Quaternary produced extensive local coarse clastic deposits. During the Pleistocene glacial episode 

Lake Bonneville covered much of the eastern part of the region, and lake currents redistributed 

much of the sand and gravel forming deposits at several levels of the lake (Crittenden, 1963, 

Morrison, 1966). Subsequent uplift and erosion continued to form the present topographic 

expression of the Oquirrh Mountains.

Precambrian Basement Terrane and the Uinta Trend

A structurally- and stratigraphically-complex Precambrian basement (cratonal) terrane, 

which extends westward into central Nevada, underlies north-central Utah (Eaton, 1982; Anderson

17
and others, 1983; and Reed and others, 1993). This terrane is, in large part, concealed west of the 

Wasatch fault line in central Utah. However, the Precambrian terrane is known from outcrops in 

the Uinta and Wasatch Ranges (Crittenden and others, 1952; Condie, 1969; Crittenden (1976), 

Bryant and Nichols, 1988; and Bryant, 1993) and locally in west-central Utah (Levy and ChristieBlick, 1989). Geophysical data in the Great Basin indicate the presence of a basement terrane 

underlying the eastern Great Basin (Kistler and Peterman, 1978; Eaton and others 1978; Mabey 

and others, 1978; Bankey and Campbell, 1989; and Henstock and others, 1998). Where exposed 

in the Wasatch Mountains in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, the basement rocks consist of two 

Precambrian rock terranes (King and Beikman, 1974; Sears and others, 1982; and Bryant and 

Nichols, 1988). Crystalline basement rocks of the Archean Wyoming shield, described by King 

(1976) and Bryant (1979), lie north of a generally east-west-trending fault zone along the north 

flank of the Uinta Mountains (the Uinta trend in fig. 2). South of this zone a predominantly 

Proterozoic oceanic terrane forms the core of the Uinta Mountains (Blick, 1979).

The nature of geologic activity at this intersection over time is important for understanding 

the sequence of geologic events that eventually produced the Oquirrh Mountains. Crittenden and 

Wallace (1973) and Zoback (1983) consider that the Uinta Mountains were formed as a Proterozoic 

allocogen, which has undergone a number of subsequent uplifts. Beutner (1977) developed the 

concept that this uplifted "Salt Lake reentrant" is the site of a long-lived crustal flaw, the CortezUinta axis or Uinta trend2 , that originated from the allocogen and, at intervals during the 

Paleozoic, produced a linear transverse positive element westward across the adjoining 

miogeosyncline. The complex record of folding and uplift of the Uinta Mountains along the trend 

in terms of the interaction between the Uinta trend and the Sevier overthrust belt is considered in 

more detail by Osmond, (1964), Crosby, 1976), Bryant and Nichols (1988), Bradley and Bruhn 

(1988), and Bradley (1995) than is possible here. While most recent folding, northward thrusting 

and uplift of the Uinta Mountains (south of the Uinta trend) seems to postdate a Sevier overthrust

2 Uinta trend is used in the remainder of this report for this basement 

structural element.

18
event (Bryant and Nichols, 1988; and Bradley and Bruhn, 1988), structural and stratigraphic 

differences along the northern and southern margins of the Uinta Mountains uplift strongly imply 

an earlier positive trend structure. Yonkee and Mitre (1993) demonstrate that the Precambrian 

basement rocks in the northern Wasatch Range are deformed by large-scale imbricate thrust faults.

An alternative interpretation for the origin of the Uinta trend as a zone of accretion of 

Proterozoic rocks from the south onto the Archean shield is supported by the geophysical evidence 

of Henstock and others (1998). This accretion produced an east-west trending fold system of the 

Uinta Mountains and adjoining basin to the south. The zone has undergone subsequent 

redeformation and uplift. Sims and others (1987) have identified comparable, possibly related 

accretion of a Proterozoic oceanic terrane to the shield in the midcontinent. The fault zone as traced 

along the northern border of the Uinta Mountains and across northern Colorado and southeastern 

Wyoming (Sears, and others, 1982) possibly may be regarded as a related westward extension of 

that midcontinent accretion zone. A projection of this suture zone, west-southwestward into 

western Utah, under the Oquirrh, Stansbury, and Cedar Mountains, and eastern Nevada, 

however, may be inferred from indirect evidence. Thus the Uinta trend seems to be part of a broad 

regional structural system.

There are a number of indicators for the existence of a Uinta trend. The inferred trace of it 

in figure 2 is located in a general way by Webb (1958), Roberts and others (1965), and Erickson 

(1976): (1) Along a number of linearly disposed intrusive and extrusive rocks of Tertiary age 

exposed in the Wasatch Mountains and in mountain ranges in the Great Basin west of the Wasatch 

fault (Armstrong and others, 1969, Moore and others, 1979, and Moore and McKee, 1983), (2) 

by local extensive uplift and erosion of sedimentary rocks overlying the Bingham plutons during a 

period of igneous activity in the Oligocene (Slentz, 1955), (3) sedimentational evidence of 

irregular, local uplifts elsewhere during the Paleozoic in western Utah and eastern Nevada (Webb, 

1958, Coats, 1987, Brooks, 1956, and Roberts and Tooker, 1969), (4) and geophysical data 

(Bankey and Campbell, 1989).

19
Finally, Field and Moore (1971) reported an isotopic signature for the Bingham intrusives 

that indicated their derivation, in part at least, from crustal rocks. This infers access to a deepreaching flaw zone structure in this area that tapped a crustal source of magma. However, the 

validity of their isotopic signature was recently challenged by Farmer and DePaolo (1983). In spite 

of this problem, the linear series of intrusions westward from the Wasatch is permissive evidence 

for believing that the Uinta trend is a deep-seated basement structure. There is also the suggestion 

from regional geochemical data that minor amounts of platinum occur in ore deposits along a zone 

overlying the Uinta trend from Ely, Nevada to southeastern Wyoming (Page and Tooker, 1979; 

Tooker 1979).

Geologic evidence seems to indicate that the Uinta trend was a structurally active zone that 

constituted an uplifted promontory in the basement during the Late Cretaceous forming a foreland 

buttress in the vicinity east of the Oquirrh Mountains against which the several nappes converged 

(Tooker, 1983). In contrast, nappes that moved into topographic lows in the craton, both north 

and south of the trend, permitted more eastward penetration and much less fragmentation of the 

Sevier thrust lobes in Wyoming, as shown by Oriel and Armstrong (1966), and in central Utah, as 

described by Morris (1983).

Paleozoic Depositional Basin

Phanerozoic sediments were deposited on an irregular, broad, gradually- and 

differentially- subsiding, shallowly submerged craton shelf (Stewart and Poole, 1974; 

Peterson, 1977), presumably located in what is now western Utah and eastern Nevada (fig. 

3). The shelf orientation is interpreted to trend generally north-northeasterly, and occur an 

undetermined distance west of the autochthonous, nearer-shore, more slowly-subsiding 

part of the craton shelf zone now exposed in the present Wasatch Mountains, east of Salt 

Lake City (Baker and others, 1949; Armstrong, 1968a; Crittenden, 1976; Rose, 1976a, 

1976b; and Jordan and Douglas, 1980). [This same hinterland zone is the site of later 

Jurassic plutons described by Miller and Hoisch (1995).] The east-west Uinta trend

20
(Webb, 1958; and Roberts and others, 1965) crosses the miogeocline in a west-southwest 

direction. It provided a persistent barrier, sometimes as an emergent ridge across the shelf 

separating deposition of sediments in an Oquirrh basin to the south and the Sublette basin 

on the northern side (Peterson, 1977), and intermittently contributing coarse clastic debris 

locally. The regional distribution of separate sedimentational regimes in the Oquirrh and 

Sublette basins, which is discussed later in more detail, is shown in figure 4. The 

differentiation in the pattern of sedimentation north of the trend from that south of the trend 

is observed in the Oquirrh Mountain in the Paleozoic rocks of the Rogers Canyon and 

Bingham nappes (Tooker and Roberts, 1970; and Morris and Levering, 1961) and in the 

Paleozoic rocks in the Wasatch Range (Crittenden, 1959, 1976). 

FIGURES 3 and 4, NEAR HERE

The miogeoclinal sediments present in the Oquirrh Mountains originally comprised 

an extensive, although locally compositionally variable and structurally attenuated, 

sedimentary record of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras (Armstrong 1968a; and 

Stewart and Poole, 1974). Overall, the Paleozoic rocks exposed in the Oquirrh Mountains 

are mainly thick accumulations of various amounts of carbonate-quartz elastics, 

orthoquartzite, shale, limestone, and dolomite (Tooker and Roberts, 1970) mostly of 

Paleozoic age that contain an abundant fauna of macro- and micro-fossils. These indicate 

deposition on a generally shallow, slowly-subsiding, miogeoclinal craton shelf (Gordon 

and Duncan, 1970). During the early Paleozoic, well-sized, clean sedimentary materials 

were derived from the rising and eroding continental craton to the east. Later, during midand upper-Paleozoic time, sedimentary debris originating in the northern part of the 

miogeocline also began to include less well-sized, mixed source materials from the erosion 

of a rising Antler belt to the west, which was composed of oceanic-derived rocks (Roberts, 1964; 

Poole, 1974; and Wilson and Laule, 1979). The composition of the resulting miogeoclinal 

sedimentary rocks varied during time as well as along the shelf depending on the proximity to and

21
relative contributions of materials from these contrasting sources of sedimentary materials moving

into the geosynclinal basins (Tooker and Roberts, 1988).

Structural factors along the Uinta trend complicate the early Paleozoic miogeoclinal 

stratigraphic record. Uplift along the trend, beginning in early Ordovician time (Gilluly, 1932, 

Roberts and others, 1965; and Tooker, 1983) resulted in an absence of Ordovician, Silurian, and 

much of the Devonian sedimentary record in the Oquirrh Mountains' part of the Bingham nappe 

owing to non-deposition or erosion. The Stansbury disturbance in Late Devonian time, described 

by Brooks (1956), Rigby (1959), Morris and Lovering (1961), and Roberts and Tooker, (1969), 

also initiated arching, uplift, and faulting along parts of the Uinta trend. This resulted in local 

erosion of lower Paleozoic rocks down to the Precambrian level in western Uinta Mountains, and 

local formation of coarse clastic rocks immediately north and south of the axial region. Coats 

(1978) reported local conglomeratic lenses north of the trend in the Pennsylvanian-age rocks of 

Elko County. The Uinta trend can not be reliably inferred farther west than Eureka, Nevada, 

because of the overlap of thrust plates from the west during the Antler orogeny in Late Devonian 

or Early Mississippian time.

Thus stratigraphic and structural distinctions recognized in rocks previously thought to be

indistinguishable now permits the identification of thrust-fault nappes joined in the Oquirrh

Mountains that were derived from separate parts of the miogeocline (Tooker and Roberts, 1988).

A much thinner sequence of comparable sedimentary rocks and their faunas were deposited on the

craton shelf and are exposed in the Wasatch Mountains (Baker, and others, 1949; and Crittenden,

and others, 1952 and Crittenden, 1976).

Jurassic Orogeny

Late Jurassic plutonism occurred in the eastern Nevada-northwestern Utah area, the 

probable hinterland of the Sevier-age thrusts. Miller and Hoisch (1995) reviewed the evidence of 

localized magma plutons and metamorphosed wallrocks accompanying modest local thrusts with 

minimal frontal breakout. K-Ar ages of illite-rich clays in argilically altered and mineralized

22
limestone from the Mercur mining district are found to range from 98.4 to 226 Ma, according to 

Wilson and Parry (1995) who estimate that the main alteration-gold mineralization event occurred 

at about 152± 4 Ma and thus may be correlated with the Late Jurassic orogeny. Presnell and Parry 

(1996) propose that folds in the Oquirrh Mountains at the Barneys Canyon deposit in the Pass 

Canyon nappe were formed by this same Jurassic orogenic episode. However, there are no 

known Jurassic plutons to provide heat sources for metamorphism in the northern and southern 

Oquirrh Mountains. Further, I believe that stratigraphic and structural evidence and ore mineral 

zonation across the Uinta trend that the Jurassic-altered rocks indicate that they most probably were 

moved eastward on Sevier-age thrusts and folded during the Late Cretaceous. The ore deposits 

were formed or remobilized in Sevier-age structures during Tertiary intrusive activity.

Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny

An anomalous juxtaposition of the thick miogeoclinal shelf [the Mt. Timpanogos sequence 

of Tooker and Roberts, 1962] and thin platform shelf [the Mt. Raymond sequence of Tooker and 

Roberts, 1962] sequences of comparably-aged sedimentary rocks with distinctive lithologies were 

observed by Baker and others (1949) in the Wasatch Mountains. They concluded that this 

positioning was the result of irregular sequential eastward transport of thick stratigraphic plates of 

Paleozoic rocks by thrust faults during a compressional phase of the Late Cretaceous Sevier 

orogeny. This is now known to be part of an extensive decollement that extends discontinuously 

from Alaska to Mexico (Armstrong, 1968a; and Roberts and Crittenden, 1973), and trends southsouthwest across central Utah (fig.5). Price (1989) proposed a useful model for its origin, but the 

geologic mechanism for producing decollement thrust faults is still warmly debated (Hamilton and 

Meyers, 1966; Armstrong, 1972; Roberts and Crittenden, 1973; Allmendinger, and others, 1983; 

and DeCelles and others, 1995). Parts of the thrust belt may have been transported eastward 

toward the present foreland zone as little as 10 km (Hintze, 1973) to as much 150 km (Crittenden, 

1961). The movement of the thrust belt was irregular, both in time and space, and apparently its 

frontal edge was separated into individual lobes approaching the foreland zone in central Utah.

23
Segmentation of the Sevier thrust belt into individually recognizable distinctively deformed 

nappes3 in the central-Utah part of the belt have been described by Morris (1983) and looker 

(1970, 1983). Five nappes, which were the result of the coalescing of sequentially-arriving 

individual lobes (fig. 6) are recognized in the Oquirrh Mountains by looker (1983) and looker 

and Roberts (1988), on the basis of structural and stratigraphic evidence. 

FIGURES 5 and 6, NEAR HERE.

Further evidence of the Sevier orogeny observed in the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata 

on the craton platform east of ther Oquirrh Mountains are mainly clastic conglomerate, sandstone, 

shale, and lesser carbonate sediments that were derived from the erosion of the foreland of Sevier 

thrust plates (Spieker, 1946; Eardley, 1955; Lawton and others, 1993; and Heller and Paola, 

1989).

Formation of the Basin and Range Province

The characteristic geologic features along the eastern edge of the Great Basin part of the 

Basin and Range province (Nolan, 1943) were initiated in the late Cenozoic as a result of crustal 

extension and accompanying magmatism (Vonllsh and others, 1985) following a period of 

profound plate convergence and crustal compression that had produced the Antler and Sevier 

orogenic events. The Basin and Range region is characterized by many normal faults, some of 

which are still active; physiographically it is an area of internal drainage. Eaton (1979) has 

enlarged the Basin and Range province to include some adjoining areas in what he has called a 

Cordilleran thermotectonic anomaly region, a geophysically consistent area of high heat flow, low 

seismic wave velocity, and thin crust and lithosphere.

Ihe present topography is that of intermountane alluvial-filled basins and narrow blockfaulted mountain ranges described by Stewart (1978). Ihe mountain ranges in western Utah and 

in most of Nevada are surrounded by shallow- to deeply-filled basins containing clastic

3 A nappe, as used here, is a sheetlike allochthonous structural unit formed by thrust 

faulting. The nappe in turn, may contain lesser imbricate overlying thrust faults.

24
sedimentary materials resulting from accelerated uplift and erosion. Some of the graben-like basins 

flanking the Oquirrh Mountains contain more than 3,600 m of poorly consolidated sediments 

(Cook and others, 1966). The faults bounding the mountains are believed to be listric, and ranges 

such as the Oquirrh Mountains along the eastern side of the Great Basin have been tilted as much 

as 25 degrees to the east (Stewart, 1978). The block faulting probably is the result of back-arc 

uplift and extension developed during the early and middle Cenozoic, and to result from diapiric 

rise and lateral spreading of the North American plate, which overlay and was heated by a 

subducted Farallon plate at depth (Davis, 1979; Stewart, 1978; Eaton, 1979; and Zobach, 1983). 

Thus, the Great Basin is a region characterized locally by later magmatic intrusion and extrusive 

deposits accompanied by hydrothermal circulation, and the deposition of metallic ore deposits 

(Eaton, 1979).

Tertiary Igneous Activity and Ore Deposits

Within the Sevier erogenic belt, major east-west transverse structural zones like the Uinta 

trend became sites for the localization of igneous intrusions and spatially-located clusters of 

important mineral districts (Butler, and others, 1920; Hilpert and Roberts, 1964; Jerome and 

Cook, 1967; Tooker, 1971; and Stewart, and others, 1977). Tooker (1971), Lipman and 

Christiansen (1972), and Shawe and Stewart (1976) correlate the location of such ore-forming 

zones in the Sevier belt with magmatism related to crustal lineaments, which may represent 

persistent structural zones in the Precambrian basement rocks.

Autochthonous and allochthonous sedimentary rocks on the craton platform and shelf were 

intruded locally during the Oligocene by subvolcanic quartz monzonitic porphyry stocks, sills, and 

dikes (Moore, 1973b; Lanier and others, 1978b; and John, 1978). Late stages of the Oligocene 

igneous activity were marked by the extrusion of andesitic to latitic volcanic and volcaniclastic 

rocks in Jordan Valley and the West Transverse Mountains (Smith, 1961; and Moore, 1973a). 

Late-stage hydrothermal solutions developed near the close of intrusive activity (Moore, 1973c)

25
were introduced and ore and gangue minerals were precipitated locally in structurally prepared and 

stratigraphically favorable areas in and adjoining the intrusives.

Uplift of the Oquirrh Mountains along the Uinta Trend Axis 

during the Period of Igneous Activity

Several lines of evidence from the types of igneous rock suites and timing of their 

introduction permit the inference that the uplift of the sedimentary rocks overlying parts of 

the Uinta trend continued during the period of igneous activity. The sequence of intrusion 

along the northeast-trending fault system in the Bingham district developed by Waarnars 

and others (1978) implies that the faults were reopened successively, following deposition 

of the composite stocks, allowing the formation of cross-cutting dikes. Lateral movement 

along the faults is not pronounced, which suggests that the main reopening force along 

them was from vertical movement. The central part of the Oquirrh Mountains is also the 

apparent source area for the maximum thickness of deposits of Markers Fanglomerate 

(Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ib) along the margins of the range. Although Tooker and 

Roberts consider that this unit is mainly of Quaternary age, its deposition most probably 

may, in part at least, be correlated with the Tertiary period of accelerated uplift in the central 

Oquirrh Mountains.

The relatively narrow zone of larger, nearly comparable-aged monzonite-type stock 

and dike intrusions in the range lie between the Bingham and Stockton intrusive centers. 

Volcanic rocks are concentrated along the eastern margin of the range and occur for short 

distances across the zone of uplift. In a general way, the intrusive and extrusive rocks 

farther from the main zone are progressively younger in age and less abundant. The 

Bingham and Last Chance stocks were emplaced early in the sequence. Moore's (1973b) 

estimate that the stocks were formed under a sedimentary cover of about 2,300 m is based 

on fluid inclusion data. Yet the associated volcanic units, which undoubtedly were formed 

at or close to the surface, presently lie adjacent to the stocks. One hypothesis is that uplift 

of the stocks and erosion of the original sedimentary rock cover brought the intrusives

26
closer to the surface by the time of the formation of the younger volcanic rock south of the 

main intrusive zone. One problem with this analysis is that the age of andesite porphyry 

flow on the range front northeast of the Bingham district is comparable with that of the 

Bingham stock. This can only be explained by postulating a range-boundary fault that 

dropped the east side and protected the volcanic rocks while the west side containing the 

porphyry stocks subsequently rose and its original cover was eroded. Such an explanation 

can not be dismissed because the preservation of the klippen block containing Grandeur 

Member limestones at the mouth of Barneys Canyon (Tooker and Roberts 1988) can best 

be explained by a similar type of structural analysis (Tooker, 1992).

Quaternary Uplift and Pleistocene Glaciation

Uplift and intense erosion during the early Quaternary unroofed the mineralized areas in the 

Oquirrh Mountains and elsewhere in the region, producing extensive alluvial fans and pediments 

along the range fronts, particularly in the central part of the range overlying the Uinta trend zone. 

These are the Marker Fanglomerate deposits (Slentz, 1955).

During the Pleistocene glacial interval, a very extensive body of freshwater, Lake 

Bonneville, formed in the valleys between the ranges (Gilbert, 1886; Eardley and others, 1957; 

and Crittenden, 1963). The multi-level shorelines representing fluctuating levels of this lake are 

the sites of widespread, locally well-preserved bars, spits, and other coarse clastic shoreline 

features.

RECOGNITION OF NAPPES IN THE OQUIRRH MOUNTAINS

Regional-scale thrust faulting during the Sevier orogeny, which created nappe structures in 

the Oquirrh Mountains, was recognized elsewhere by Baker, and others, (1949), Armstrong and 

Oriel (1965), Armstrong (1968b), and its significance in Utah was developed further by Roberts, 

and others (1965), Roberts and Crittenden (1973), and Beutner (1977). Detailed mapping of the 

foreland of the thrust belt in the Oquirrh Mountains provides additional information about thrust

27
movement, the stratigraphic and structural characteristics of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, and the 

location and geologic setting of the indigenous mining districts. Identification of five juxtaposed 

nappes in the Oquirrh Mountains is based on observations of distinctively different stratigraphic 

and structural features in the nappes (Tooker, 1983). The inference here is that strata now 

constituting these contiguous nappes were deposited originally in more widely separated sites on 

the miogeoclinal shelf than their present location would suggest, shown in fig. 3, and moved 

sequentially as individual lobes to converge and become joined in the present Oquirrh Mountains.

Location of the Oquirrh Mountains Nappes

The five Oquirrh Mountains nappes include the Pass Canyon, Bingham, Rogers Canyon, 

South Mountain, and Fivemile Pass nappes (fig. 7), whose geologic features were mapped 

originally in the 7 1/2-minute topographic quadrangles, as noted below, and located in figure 1. 

The Pass Canyon nappe is exposed across the central part of the range north of the Bingham 

Canyon mine and south of Nelson Peak in the Bingham Canyon 7 1/2-min. quadrangle (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1988). The Bingham nappe occurs in the southern two thirds of the range, south of 

the Bingham Canyon mine and crops out in the Tooele (Tooker, 1980), Bingham Canyon (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1988), Lark (Tooker, unpubl. data), Stockton (Tooker and Roberts, 1992), Lowe 

Peak (Tooker, (1992), Tickville Springs (Moore, 1973a), Ophir and Mercur (Tooker, 1987), and 

Cedar Fort (Tooker, unpubl. data) 7 1/2-min. quadrangles. The Rogers Canyon nappe at the 

north end of the range occurs in the Mills Junction (Tooker and Roberts, 197 la), Farnsworth Peak 

[formerly Garfield] (Tooker and Roberts, 197Ib), Magna (Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ic) and 

Bingham Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988) 7 1/2-min. quadrangles. The South Mountain 

nappe occurs in the Stockton (Tooker and Roberts, 1992) and South Mountain (Tooker, unpubl. 

data) 7 1/2-min. quadrangles. The Fivemile Pass nappe is located north of Fivemile Pass at the 

very south end of the range in the Mercur 7 1/2-min. quadrangle (Tooker 1987). 

FIGURE 7, NEAR HERE.

28
Hinterland Source of the Nappes

The location of a depositional site and hinterland source of sedimentary rocks comprising 

the nappes, inferred in figure 3 as possibly near or west of the Utah-Nevada State line area, 

remains uncertain in spite of past intense geologic research. The geology of this area is very 

complex both structurally and lithologically (Cook, and others 1964; Armstrong, 1972; Wenicke, 

1981; Todd, 1983; Miller, 1983; Jordan, 1983; Camilleri and others, 1994, and Miller and 

Hoisch,1995. According to Camllleri and others (1994), the Sevier hinterland in northeast Nevada 

experienced two Mesozoic metamorphic event. A Late Jurassic event was characterized by contact 

metamorphism about sparse upper- to mid-crustal syntectonic plutons and synchronous crustal 

shortening and thickening. A Late Cretaceous regional metamorphism of the crust resulted in 

major crustal thickening and provided a mechanism for producing the Sevier-age decollement 

thrust in Utah. The hinterland area is a subject of continuing research and speculation in the 

attempt to identify a source for the nappes, a subject that is beyond the scope of this report.

Movement of the Nappes

A mechanism for initiating and facilitating nappe movement on the Sevier thrust faults also 

is not fully understood. Some investigators (Roberts and Crittenden, 1973; and Todd, 1983) call 

upon the gravity model of Ruby and Hubbard (1959). A detachment model described by 

Allmendinger and Jordan (1981, 1984) envisions a process of upthrusting initiated by an 

expanding magma chamber in the crust. None were able to pinpoint where the sediments were 

actually laid down (presumably somewhere in central or eastern Nevada) because of the overlap of 

subsequent thrusts and the formation of intervening uplifted core complexes (Compton, 1983). 

Cross (1986) proposed a tectonic model for the development of the Sevier foreland basin. The 

timing of thrusting in the Sevier belt was discussed by Heller and others (1986) and Gillespie and 

Heller (1995). However formed originally, the resulting structures observed in the Oquirrh 

Mountains part of the foreland, which represent only the final burst in movement of the thrust

29
plates, seem to have the characteristics of or mimic gravity emplacement in their accretion onto the 

foreland craton platform (Tooker, 1970).

Generally eastward movement of Oquirrh Mountains nappes on sole thrusts is inferred 

from the regional deployment of thrust terranes (fig. 3) and the pattern and magnitude of folded 

foreland sedimentary strata (Morris, 1983; and Tooker, 1983). Morris and Tooker indicated that 

there are regional structural differences in the Utah nappes depending on whether the thrust plates 

impinged on a foreland craton area that was a low, downwarped basinal, or on an elevated 

promontory. It is not known whether the thrust belt moved initially as a single unit, and, at some 

point in its eastward journey, separated into distinct lobes. It is known that as these lobes 

approached the foreland, they moved separately and were structurally modified much as lobes in a 

glacier (Tooker, 1970). Eastward movement along the Sevier thrust belt seems to have 

progressed sequentially, timewise, from Wyoming and northern Utah southward (Oriel and 

Armstrong, 1966). The actual distances of nappe movement on the sole thrust faults in Utah are 

not known, but have been estimated at somewhere between 10 and 150 km (Hintze, 1973; 

Crittenden, 1961). The final directions of movement by the nappes (fig. 6) are inferred to be 

normal to the trend of the folds produced. In addition, movement on imbricate thrusts in the 

Oquirrh Mountain nappes is less extensive than on the main sole thrust. Movement on the 

imbricate thrusts probably ranges from tens of meters to possibly as much as one kilometer and 

may have occurred as pick-a-back structures before the nappe's sole thrust reached the foreland.

Convergence of Nappes in the area of the future Oquirrh Mountains

The Oquirrh Mountain nappes are inferred to have converged about a basement promontory 

or buttress (figs. 6 and 7), coming to rest sequentially (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The Pass 

Canyon nappe was the first to arrive, followed, successively, by the Bingham, Rogers Canyon, 

South Mountain nappes, and last, the Fivemile Pass nappe. This order of arrival is determined by 

several lines of evidence. Their disposition over a basement high or promontory along the 

up warped Uinta trend or reentrant of Beutner (1977) was based on permissive interpretation of the

30
structural, stratigraphic, and geophysical features observed in the Salt Lake recess (Tooker, 1983). 

The relative ages of nappe emplacements in the Oquirrh Mountains are determined by such factors 

as their stratigraphic composition, structural positions, fold structures, degree of refolding, and 

alteration.

Assuming that the directions of fold axes are nearly normal to the last direction of nappe 

movement, the mapped fold systems, shown diagrammatic ally in figure 6 (from Tooker, 1998), 

permit speculating that the Pass Canyon nappe (or lobe) moved generally east-northeast to 

eastward where it was folded as it overran the Uinta trend basement buttress. The northern part of 

the Bingham nappe, whose folded sedimentary rocks are bent to the northwest, moved 

northeastward overlapping the Pass Canyon plate and the south side of the buttress. However, the 

main direction of nappe movement in the southern part of the range is nearly due eastward. The 

Rogers Canyon lobe subsequently approached its foreland destination from the northwest, 

overlapping the Pass Canyon and Bingham nappes as it moved generally southeastward over the 

buttress. The bent South Mountain nappe moved generally north and north-northeast on the 

Stockton thrust onto the Oquirrh Mountains, where it overlaps the Bingham plate. Subsequently, 

the Fivemile Pass nappe also docked on the Bingham nappe at the south end of the range, having 

moved in from the south-southwest.

Stratigraphic Features of the Main Nappes

Stratigraphic studies and geologic mapping in the Oquirrh Mountains at the 1:24,000 scale 

provide lithologic and structural data for distinguishing the nappes. The following brief summary 

of the salient stratigraphic features of the areally more prominent Pass Canyon, Bingham, and 

Rogers Canyon nappes highlights distinctions in rocks of Pennsylvania and Early Permian ages, 

both locally in the Oquirrh Mountains and more regionally. More detailed examination of the 

stratigraphy of individual nappes follows in discussions of the geology. Consideration of the 

South Mountain and Fivemile Pass nappes, which are small areally, and are composed of very

31
limited parts of the stratigraphic section, is deferred until the later discussion of lithologies in 

individual nappes.

Pass Canyon nappe

Sedimentary rocks in the Pass Canyon nappe apparently were deposited in the vicinity of 

the Uinta trend, presumably on the southern edge of the Sublette basin, on that part of the shelf 

west-southwest of the Oquirrh Mountains between the deposition sites of the Bingham and Rogers 

Canyon nappes (fig. 3). There are no lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the nappe, possibly 

because of non deposition, erosion, or, more probably, their non-selection by the nappe's 

(unexposed) Pass Canyon sole thrust fault, which may be an upper imbrication of the main NeboCharleston thrust in the Wasatch Mountains. The main Early Permian sedimentary rock units of 

the Pass Canyon nappe are believed to have been derived predominantly from the Antler uplift. 

The lowest Pass Canyon strata are composed of interbedded, thinly layered, sheared, cyclicly 

repeated, clastic limestones, shales, and quartzites, which superficially resemble sedimentary rocks 

of Missouri-age in the Bingham nappe. No identifiable fossils were found. These rocks are 

overlain by prominent calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite with minor interbedded limestone that 

tentatively are dated by sparse and poorly preserved fossils. The quartzites characteristically 

weather dark brown in contrast to the clean, light-tan weathering, well-sorted quartzites of 

comparable age rocks in the Bingham nappe. Pebble conglomerates and intraformational breccias 

occur locally in the middle part of the Pass Canyon nappe. These features suggest that local uplift 

occurred intermittently along the part of the shelf that overlay the Uinta trend during the deposition 

of these sedimentary rocks. Coarse clastic materials were developed as the result of local 

reworking of previously consolidated sediments as well as slumping and brecciation of 

incompletely consolidated layers off of the uplifted zone during deposition of the sedimentary 

units. The uppermost sedimentary rocks of the nappe comprise prominent thin-bedded limestones, 

which are comparable lithologically to the Kirkman Limestone of Early Permian age in the Wasatch 

Range (Welsh and James 1961), and, like the Furner Valley Limestone in the East Tintic 

Mountains (Morris and others, 1977), seem to have been derived mainly from an eastern craton

32
source. Thus, during Late Pennsylvanian-Early Permian time, larger contributions of carbonate 

and quartzose sediments to the Pass Canyon nappe are inferred to be derived from oceanic crustal 

sedimentary and igneous rocks composing the Antler uplift. During later Early Permian time, a 

larger contribution of carbonate sedimentary materials is best explained as their derivation from the 

east, mainly from erosion on the craton.

Bingham nappe

The Bingham nappe, which extends from the Oquirrh Mountains southward to the East 

Tintic Mountains, contains a thick Paleozoic stratigraphic section (Sandberg and others, 1982). It 

ranges from the Cambrian Tintic Quartzite to the Upper Pennsylvanian Bingham Mine Formation 

in the Oquirrh Mountains (Gilluly, 1932; Tooker and Roberts, 1988). However, Ordovician, 

Silurian, and Devonian sedimentary rocks, which are amply exposed at the south end of the 

Bingham nappe in the East Tintic Mountains, Utah (flg.4), are not present in the Oquirrh 

Mountains (Harris, 1959). The depositional area of the Timpanogos nappe, which moved 

eastward on the Nebo-Charleston thrust (Crittenden, 1976), must have been similarly located with 

respect to the Uinta trend as the same formational units are missing in it. This missing stratigraphic 

interval undoubtedly was the result of local uplift along the Uinta trend, as observed by Webb 

(1958). The depositional site of the part of the Bingham nappe that now is located at Tintic, Utah, 

apparently was located farther south in the Oquirrh basin from the uplifted Uinta trend. A thick 

stratigraphic section of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian fossil- and carbonate-rich sedimentary 

rocks present in the Bingham nappe seems to have been the result of deposition in a more rapidly 

subsiding part of the basin south of the Uinta trend (Tooker and Roberts, 1970). Based on the 

sorting and cleanness of detrital materials, the source of these sediments is believed to have been 

primarily from the craton. The absence of Permian strata in the northern part of the nappe may be 

explained by nondeposition along the Uinta trend or erosion during later uplift along the trend.

Permian-age sedimentary rocks, which are absent or were eroded in the southern Oquirrh 

Mountains, are present in the Bingham nappe in the southern-most East Tintic Mountains (Morris

33
and others, 1977). The Upper Pennsylvanian Bingham Mine Formation in this area is, in large 

part, stratigraphically comparable with its age counterpart in the central and southern Oquirrh 

Mountains. The formation contains interbedded well-sorted, clean, clastic siliceous and carbonate 

strata, in which quartzites generally predominate over the interbedded limestone and shale. On the 

basis of its reworked and clean sedimentary debris and prominent cross-bedding structures, the 

Bingham Mine Formation apparently was derived mostly from the erosion of the craton and 

deposited on the craton platform in a relatively shallow sea. Morris and others (1977) showed that 

in the Bingham nappe at Tintic, Utah, the Bingham Mine Formation is succeeded by the more than 

90 percent carbonate-bearing beds of the Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian Furner Valley 

Limestone, which are also presumed to be of cratonal origin.

Rogers Canyon nappe

The Upper Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks in the Rogers Canyon nappe are believed to 

have originated in the Sublette basin and contrast with those in the Bingham nappe in terms of 

thickness, age, characteristic sedimentary units, and missing parts of the section even though there 

is an overall similarity in the types of deposits of carbonate- and silica-rich sedimentary rocks. The 

Upper Mississippian Green Ravine Formation at the base of the exposed stratigraphic section is 

composed predominantly of fossiliferous limestones, correlative in age with the Mercur limestone 

member of the Great Blue Limestone. These sedimentary rocks grade into the mostly 

Pennsylvanian Lake Point Limestone without an intervening shale (eg., the Manning Canyon 

Shale) sequence that is present throughout the Bingham and Timpanogos nappes. The sedimentary 

rocks of the Early Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Group in the Rogers Canyon nappe apparently were 

deposited on the shelf in the Sublette basin in the hinterland farther north of the Uinta trend than 

those of the Pass Canyon or Bingham nappes. The rocks consist predominantly of well-sorted, 

thin-to medium-bedded, craton-derived clastic carbonate and quartzite components. Although the 

stratigraphic units of Late Pennsylvanian age are massive, generally weather dark brown, and are 

composed mainly of arenaceous orthoquartzites and calcareous quartzites interbedded with very

34
sparse thin-bedded limestone and shale (Tooker and Roberts, 1970), their thickness is less than 

that of comparably-aged strata in the Bingham nappe. The Rogers Canyon strata are inferred to 

have been deposited in the less rapidly subsiding Sublette basin on the north side of the Uinta 

trend. Nearer-shore basin deposits north of the trend, now exposed on Mount Raymond in the 

Wasatch Mountains, contain closely similar but much thinned stratigraphic assemblages (fig. 4), 

according to Crittenden (1976).

No Wolfcamp-age (Early Permian) sediments are identified in the Rogers Canyon nappe. 

Gordon and Duncan (1970) concluded that an unconformity occurs at the base of the conformably 

overlying fossiliferous limestones of the Grandeur Member of the Park City Formation (Late 

Leonard to Early Permian age). Sedimentary rocks in the upper part of the Rogers Canyon nappe 

seem to include some oceanic-derived, often poorly-sorted sedimentary components from the 

Antler highland in central Nevada, which was an active highland area from Late Devonian to Early 

Pennsylvanian time (Roberts, 1964).

Significance of variations in nappe sedimentary rocks

The variations in sedimentary rocks in Oquirrh Mountain nappes, and including the East 

Tintic Mountains part of the Bingham nappe, are compatible with a model of transitional 

sedimentation southward along the miogeoclinal shelf. This conclusion is based on the relative 

proportions and types of source materials input, the development or absence of coarse elastics from 

local uplift along the Uinta trend, and in some cases, possibly, the absence of sedimentary 

materials available for deposit in an uplift area or their bypass of the deposit area.

Structural Features of Nappes

Structural dislocations along fold and fault systems in the Oquirrh Mountains provide 

additional clues to the recognition of individual nappes. The general characteristics of these 

structural elements are summarized below, but the details of their occurrences in individual nappes 

are described later. These data support a geologic model consisting of individual lobes developed

35
along a decollement thrust front that were diversely deflected in the Salt Lake recess in sequence 

before they came to rest in the Oquirrh Mountains (Tooker, 1970).

Main and Secondary Folds

The principal sizes and types of folds that characterize the Oquirrh Mountains nappes 

include large-amplitude main folds and more numerous low-amplitude secondary folds. Main 

folds formed as the result of movement of a competent thick stratigraphic section on a sole thrust 

fault generally are broad, nearly symmetrical, and of high-amplitude such as the Kessler and Pole 

Canyon folds in the Rogers Canyon and Bingham nappes (Tooker and Roberts, cross sections in 

1971b and 1988). When thin-bedded, less-competent, or a thinner stack of sedimentary rocks are 

moved, such as locally along the lead edges of thrusts, possibly on imbricate thrusts, tighter, lowamplitude folds result. Where the leading edges of nappes overrode the Uinta trend buttress, the 

broad folds became asymmetrical-to-slightly overturned, as seen in the Bingham syncline on the 

Bingham nappe in the Bingham mining district (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The amplitude of 

some isoclinal folds that occur above the Uinta trend buttress may be large. Examples are found in 

the eastern half of the Rogers Canyon nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ib); and in the Pass Canyon 

nappe west of Nelson Peak (Tooker and Roberts, 1988).

A system of narrow, secondary , closely-spaced, symmetrical, low-amplitude, and locally 

asymmetrical-to-oveiturned folds were also developed in the thinned upper plate above imbricate 

thrusts in the nappe, and generally occur as subparallel overprinted folds of a main fold. Such 

secondary folds are observed on the upper plates of the Manning and Butterfield Pass imbricate 

thrusts in the Bingham nappe (Tooker, 1987, 1992).

Variations in the types and magnitudes of fold structures in the Oquirrh Mountain nappes 

may provide an indication of the distances travelled and the relative directions and timing of final 

nappe movement, assuming that the direction of final plate movement was normal to the general 

trend of fold axes and represents the approximate direction of final plate motion. Unfolding the 

folds provides a minimum distance of transport (Hintze, 1973). However, this does not take into

36
account the overlap of numerous imbricate thrusts on the upper plate of sole thrusts. A maximum 

distance has been inferred by projection (Baker, and others, 1949; and Crittenden, 1961). The 

timing or sequence of emplacement of the nappes is inferred, in some cases, from the refolding of 

earlier folded nappes comprising the lower plate. For example, tightly-deformed isoclinal folds in 

the upper unit of the Pass Canyon nappe in Flood Canyon are overturned to the east at the base of 

the canyon. On the ridge to the south, these same folds are overturned to the west as the result of 

later overthrusting by the Rogers Canyon nappe.

Faults

Four principal types of faults predominate in the Oquirrh Mountain nappes: (1) sole and 

imbricate thrust and/or reverse faults, (2) tear or transcurrent faults, (3) tensional normal faults that 

were formed locally during the process of nappe emplacement, and later, (4) the extensional, 

probably listric, Basin and Range (normal) faults. Some generalizations about their prominent 

trend directions, length of segments, their spacing, dip, and relative displacement are important 

characteristics for distinguishing nappes; more detailed discussion of these faults is deferred to 

considerations of the individual nappes.

Sole and imbricate thrust faults The basal plane of thrust fault motion in a nappe is 

considered a sole thrust fault. These faults commonly are not exposed due to later normal faulting, 

and must be inferred. To a much lesser extent, forward motion may also be generated along 

imbricate thrusts within the body of the nappe. Sole thrusts generally are shallow- to steep-dipping 

and may or may not follow along favorable stratigraphic horizons. The sole faults may steepen 

and cross stratigraphic horizons where the fault ramps up against an obstruction in the lower plate. 

The best example of this can be observed west of Nelson Peak in the central Oquirrh Mountains at 

the mouth of Bates Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). Here the North Oquirrh thrust dips at a 

low angle to the north, but higher up in the canyon the dip steepens as the sole thrust rises to 

overlap the Pass Canyon nappe. There seems to be little evidence of alteration or fracturing of

37
sedimentary rocks on either the upper or lower plates associated with the movement of the sole 

thrust. The main Midas (sole) thrust underlying the Bingham nappe, is concealed north of the 

Bingham mine by normal faults that drop the Pass Canyon nappe down against the Bingham 

nappe. On the basis of subsurface information developed by mining companies (Shrier, 1987, oral 

cornmun.) and surface data by looker and Roberts (1988), the Midas thrust, as mapped at the 

surface, is now believed to be one of several upper plate imbricate thrust-faults of variable lateral 

extent that developed locally along the lead edge of the nappe. The amount of movement on 

Oquirrh Mountain's sole thrusts, which may be hundreds of kilometers, can not be measured in the 

Oquirrh Mountains.

Where the sole thrust ramps onto the craton-shelf buttress, a number of thrust-fault 

imbrications were formed within the upper plate. Thus, to the southeast the North Oquirrh thrust 

flattens and splays into a series of imbrications where it passes over the Pass Canyon-Bingham 

nappes and basement structural ridge. Tight, asymmetrical to overturned folds commonly 

developed along the lead edges of the now-thinned imbricate thrust plates, and, where overturned, 

the strata commonly are sheared along steep border tear faults. Imbricate thrusts may be shallow 

dipping, as is the Markham thrust on Markham Peak, or steeply dipping (reverse faults) as are 

those in the Pass Canyon nappe on the ridge west of Nelson Peak. Movement on the imbricate 

upper plate thrusts seems to be limited to a few tens of kilometers at most

Transcurrent or tear faults Transcurrent or tear faults are modest to large-scale, steep 

strike-slip faults that bound thrust-fault segments, thereby facilitating irregular forward movement 

of the thrust fault front and constraining the lateral extent of thrust-fault segments. The 

displacement of tear faults in the Oquirrh Mountains is small in contrast to the moderate 

displacement along the Soldier tear fault that bounds the South Mountain nappe or large 

displacement along the Leamington, Inez, and Tintic Prince tear faults in the southern part of the 

East Tintic Mountains. These facilitated movement of the nappe across the Uinta basin low at the 

south end of the Bingham nappe (Morris, 1983). Tear faults in the Oquirrh Mountains are

38
developed mostly within the individual nappes and offset strata and formational units within the 

sole and imbricate thrust plates. The tear faults may be close spaced, as in the Pass Canyon nappe, 

or more widely spaced as along Butterfield imbricate thrust (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). Some 

tear faults subsequently seem to have been reactivated as normal faults.

Tensional and other normal faults of thrust origin Arching of locally-overturned broad 

folds formed in the leading edge of the Midas thrust in the Bingham syncline and adjoining 

anticlines during thrusting, resulted in the formation of steep-dipping tension faults normal to the 

fold axes (Tooker and Roberts, 1988) Where the bending is tightest, the faults are closer spaced. 

In some cases the pull-apart was filled by later igneous dikes and mineralized vein fissures. There 

may be little or no apparent horizontal or vertical displacement; some of these faults developed into 

tear faults, as one part of a lobe was pushed farther forward than its neighbor, or as normal faults 

with vertical displacement as a result of the Basin and Range extension in the region. Normal 

faults in which the hanging wall has been displaced downward fall into classes based largely on 

their prominent directional trends. In most areas the fault trends are conjugate systems; one 

directional system seems to predominate in each nappe. These faults seem mainly to be the result 

of the emplacement of the nappes and their later uplift.

Basin and Range normal faults Steep-dipping, west side generally displaced down, 

northeast, northwest, and north-south trending, often intersecting normal faults define the western 

range-front margin of the Oquirrh Mountains. These were formed by the extensional tectonic 

regime that produced the Basin and Range region during the early and late Cenozoic. Many of the 

steep-dipping normal and tear faults within the range apparently were also reactivated during uplift 

and extension of the Basin and Range terrane. The amount of displacement along the range-front 

faults is uncertain, but geophysical data of Cook and others (1964, 1966), which define the Tooele 

Valley graben, indicatee large-scale displacement of consolidated rocks and substantial filling of 

unconsolidated materials. However, within the range, the displacement along normal faults is

39
relatively small, judging from the offset of formation contacts. Faults bounding the ranges are 

commonly listric and aided the eastward tilting of the Oquirrh Mountains (Stewart, 1978). Those 

along the western side of the range are propagated in short segments, giving an saw-tooth pattern 

along the west range front (Tooker and Roberts, 1971b, 1971c). The disposition of range-front 

faults on the east side of the range is obscured by the eastward tilting of the range and by overlap 

Tertiary volcanic and Quaternary basin-fill deposits.

Some of the fault structures undoubtedly were deep-reaching enough to be able to provide 

access channels from the Uinta trend basement crustal zone for the movement of Tertiary magma 

and hydrothermal ore-bearing solutions into favorable nappe host rocks (Tooker and Roberts, 

1988, p. 7-8). Map data indicate that most, if not all of the mining districts in the Oquirrh 

Mountains occur in stressed folds at or close to the lead edges of thrust structures (Tooker, 1998).

Igneous Rocks Associated with the Nappes

Intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks occur in various amounts in most of the 

nappes; the Bingham nappe, however, hosts the major intrusive and extrusive center in the 

Oquirrh Mountains (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The Rogers Canyon and Fivemile Pass 

nappes, which are at the extreme ends of the range, contain the least igneous activity. The 

distribution of intrusive (Ti) and extrusive (Tv) rocks is shown later on the summary map 

of recent investigations in the Oquirrh Mountains compiled by Tooker and Roberts (1998). 

The petrology and petrography of these rocks were described by Moore (1973b). 

Additional published studies of these rocks are by Smith (1961), Lanier and others 

(1978a), Warnaars and others (1978), and Wilson (1978). Descriptions of them are not 

repeated here, but their general characteristics and ages are summarized in Table 1 The 

original authors' classifications of rock types are used in this report. 

TABLE 1, NEAR HERE.

A complete understanding of intrusive rocks and their interrelationships throughout 

the Oquirrh Mountains requires further, more comprehensive investigation. Nevertheless,

40
during the stratigraphic and structural studies it became clear that the distribution and types 

of igneous rocks provide evidence of continuing uplift and erosional activities along the 

Uinta trend during the approximately 8-million-year interval of igneous activity. The 

juxtaposition of coarse-grained porphyry plutons and adjoining metamorphosed skarns, 

fine-grained dikes and volcanic and lahar-type flows implies rapid uplift and erosion over 

the area of the Uinta trend during the intrusive-extrusive period. This concept is further 

supported by the local presence of thick, coarse, early Quaternary deposits containing 

intrusive rock elastics along the flanks of the range underlain by the Uinta trend. The 

relation of igneous dikes and sills on the distal flanks of the Uinta trend to the apparently 

spatially-associated disseminated gold deposits is not yet well understood.

GEOLOGY, CORRELATION, AND ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF TYPICAL 

NAPPE ROCKS IN THE OQUIRRH MOUNTAINS

Stratigraphic and structural data from the Oquirrh Mountains are advanced sufficiently to be 

important bases for identifying and interpreting the geologic evolution of the Pass Canyon, 

Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain, and Fivemile Pass nappes, their formations and 

accompanying igneous rocks. Where present, particular emphasis is placed on Upper Paleozoic 

stratigraphy (Upper Mississippian Chester to Lower Permian Leonard ages). The general physical 

similarity of Upper Paleozoic stratigraphic units in the central Oquirrh Mountains has, until 

recently, hindered differentiation of the nappes in the range. Brief summary statements about the 

associated igneous intrusive and extrusive rocks also follow. The characteristic associated ore 

deposits are reported from more detailed cited data.

Informal stratigraphic units are used where the requirements of the Code of Stratigraphic 

Nomenclature for naming formations in the Pass Canyon and South Mountain nappes have not yet 

been met. New names for some units identified earlier are required by the Code because of 

geologic-name preemptions elsewhere; in such cases, the previously assigned names are identified

41
for clarity in making comparisons with information published here. Unpublished stratigraphic data 

developed during these studies are included in an appendix. Finally, incompletely-known or 

unresolved stratigraphic relations are indicated where more data are required to resolve remaining 

current conflicting geologic interpretations.

Diverse and complex fold and fault structures in the Oquirrh Mountains are interpreted 

primarily to be the result of the emplacement of nappes that converged in the Salt Lake recess 

(Tooker, 1983; Tooker and Roberts, 1988). These nappes are characterized individually by their 

characteristic fold geometry, thrust faults, associated transcurrent or tear faults, and the distribution 

of steep-dipping normal faults. The location of igneous intrusives and the spatially-associated ore 

deposits are directly related to the pattern of fault structures in the host rocks (Tooker, 1998). 

Finally, Basin and Range extensional faulting, local uplift in the range, and accelerated erosion 

determined the present topography of the range and the shape and filling of the adjoining 

intermontane valleys. Sketch maps that highlight or focus attention on specific structural features 

in the five nappes in the following sections are derived principally from l:24,000-scale maps by 

the author and his collaborators, which are summarized by Tooker and Roberts (1998).

Pass Canyon Nappe

The Pass Canyon nappe, is located in the north-central part of the Oquirrh Mountains north 

and northwest of the Bingham mining district (figs. 7 and 8). On the basis of its stacking 

position, stratigraphy, and fold and fault structures, the Pass Canyon thrust fault,may be a 

detached imbricate thrust above the sole Nebo-Charleston thrust that underlies the Timpanogos 

nappe of Baker and others (1949) and Tooker and Roberts (1962) in the Wasatch Mountains. The 

Pass Canyon nappe apparently was stranded in the area of the Oquirrh Mountains where it crossed 

the Uinta trend buttress and now is separated from the Timpanogos nappe by an inferred major 

east-trending tear fault. The north side of the Pass Canyon nappe is delimited by its contact with 

the overriding Rogers Canyon nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1988); the boundary lies partly along 

the North Oquirrh thrust, which underlies the Rogers Canyon nappe, and partly along the down42
dropped, steeply-dipping Nelson and Tooele tear or normal faults (fig. 8). The southern 

boundary of the Pass Canyon nappe is along its join with the overriding Bingham nappe, which is 

underlain by the unexposed sole Midas thrust. This boundary is constrained by the Pine Canyon, 

AJ , and Bingham Canyon faults, which are steep-dipping normal (south side down) and (or) tear 

faults. The west side of the Pass Canyon nappe is bounded by range-front normal faults and 

overlapping Quaternary deposits. The east side is overlapped by Tertiary volcanic rocks, 

Quaternary alluvial deposits, and Holocene mine-waste dumps. 

FIGURE 8, NEAR HERE.

Two informal stratigraphic formational units were recognized by Tooker and Roberts 

(1988) in the nappe and named for typical outcrops in Dry Fork and Flood Canyons. 

Interpretation of the geology in this part of the range is contested, in large part, because detailed 

stratigraphy and geologic mapping are as yet incomplete owing to the lack of a complete measured 

section and sufficient fossil dating, the great structural complexity of the nappe, local alteration of 

the sedimentary rocks, the presence of only Wolfcamp-age units (Tooker and Roberts, 1988), and 

the fact that an orderly sequence of sedimentary rock units across the bases and tops of the two 

formational units is not exposed. All of their joining contacts seem to be along imbricate thrust, 

tear, and normal faults. The differences in interpretation of the geology and stratigraphic relations 

between Welsh and James (1961), Swensen (1975a and 1975b), and Babcock and others (1995) 

and this report are primarily due to the recognition here of structurally distinct regional nappe 

structures in the Oquirrh Mountains. Enough is now known to delineate the areal extent and 

general sedimentary and structural characteristics of the rocks exposed in the Pass Canyon nappe. 

Until more detailed mapping is done, however, measurement of the characteristic sedimentary 

rocks and their thicknesses in a stratigraphic section is not practicable.

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks

Stratigraphic features and structural discontinuities that facilitate the definition of the Pass 

Canyon nappe were the bases for proposing two informal formational units, the older Dry Fork 

Pennsylvanian and Permian(?) and younger Flood Canyon Permian(?) units of Tooker and Roberts

43
(1988). Their distribution in the range is shown in figure 8, which, with only minor 

reinterpretation here, is based on the map of the Bingham Canyon quadrangle by Tooker and 

Roberts (1988). General descriptions of these units follow; no measured sections of the rocks are 

available in this report.

Welsh and James (1961) and Swensen (1975a) considered these rocks to be the continuing 

upper part of the strata exposed in the Bingham mining district. A generalized columnar section of 

their Curry, Clinker, and Kirkman formational units is shown, in part, in App. 1. This section 

indicates their concept of the general nature of the sedimentary rock succession, and provides their 

interpretation of the succession of sedimentary rocks of Permian age that occur above an 

unconformity marked by an initial conglomerate in a thick quartzite portion of that measured 

section. More recently, Babcock and others (1995, p. 317) interpreted these rocks as comprising a 

folded thrust plate resulting from the Late Jurassic Elko orogeny. However, they still believe that 

the Curry, Clinker, and Kirkman formational units of Welsh and James (1961) overlie the 

Bingham Mine Formation (emplaced, according to them, by the Late Cretaceous Sevier orogeny) 

above a "slight disconformity."

The stratigraphic section observed in exposures on Freeman and Curry Peaks is believed to 

be part of a stratigraphic and structural domain distinct from that of the Bingham nappe on 

Markham Peak (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The Flood Canyon unit apparently is younger in 

paleontologic age than the Dry Fork unit, and overlaps it southwest of Nelson Peak as the upper 

plate of an imbricate thrust within the Pass Canyon nappe (fig 8). However, more detailed 

geologic mapping is needed to resolve remaining stratigraphic and structural uncertainties of the 

Pass Canyon nappe.

Dry Fork unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) The unit is a broadly folded sequence of 

sedimentary rocks generally surrounding the Flood Canyon unit that occurs on the west-trending 

spur of Nelson Peak, on the range-front ridge south of Rood Canyon, and on Freeman and Curry 

Peaks in the Dry Fork area (fig.8). The lower part of the unit exposed on Freeman Peak is

44
characterized by massive medium- to thick-bedded, dark-brown and tan quartzite and sandstone 

beds, that weather dark-brown and black. The upper part consists of interbedded thin- to 

medium-bedded, cross-laminated, light-brown to tan calcareous sandstone, siltstone, and local 

limestone and chert pebble conglomerates that weather light-gray -to tan . The thick-bedded 

quartzites generally consist of poorly-sorted grains and dark silty materials that characteristically 

weather dark brown to black in contrast to craton-derived, well-sorted, clean quartzites and 

carbonate units that occur in the Bingham nappe. The presence of conglomerates and poorlysorted hinterland sediments suggest their derivation primarily from the erosion of an oceanicderived source area and/or periodic local uplift along the Uinta trend.

The thickness of the Dry Fork unit as mapped by Tooker and Roberts (1988), is not known 

because of its complex internal fault structures and because its basal and upper contacts are faults. 

However, Swensen (1975a) reported that his Freeman Peak and Curry Peak formational units [the 

Clinker and Curry formational units of Welsh and James (1961)], which may in part be 

comparable with the Dry Fork unit, are about 1,480 m thick. This uncertainty requires a more 

definitive geologic-map and stratigraphic data in this well-faulted terrane in order to determine the 

true thickness of the Dry Fork unit.

The age of the rocks in the Dry Fork unit is based on poorly-preserved Pennsylvanian-age 

brachiopods, bryozoans, and corals in conglomerate pebbles that occur in the upper part of of the 

unit reported by Welsh and James (1961),. Typical Wolfcamp fusulinids were found in the upper 

part of the lower part of the Curry formational unit of Welsh and James (1961). Wolfcamp-age 

fusulinids were found locally also in thin siliceous sandstones and black chert layers in the upper 

part of the unit [their Clinker formational unit]. Adjoining Missouri-Virgil age Bingham nappe 

rocks are older than the Permian Pass Canyon formations. Rocks of Wolfcamp age were not 

identified in the adjoining Rogers Canyon nappe, but the massive unfossiliferous Oquirrh Group 

quartzites that underlie the Permian-age (Leonard) Grandeur Member of the Park City Formation 

superficially resemble rocks in the lower part of the Dry Fork unit, although as far as is now 

known, they may not be strict age equivalents.

45
Flood Canyon unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) This unit is named from tightly folded 

rocks exposed mainly in Flood Canyon, which empties into Tooele Valley in sec. 8, T.3 S., R. 3 

W. (fig. 8). The unit is in the upper plate of a concealed unnamed imbricate thrust fault (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1988) and includes a thick basal series of thin- to medium-bedded yellow-brown- to 

reddish-brown-weathering calcareous sandstone, sandy limestone, and calcareous quartzite beds. 

These are succeeded by a series of cliff-forming interbedded medium- to thick-bedded, light-gray 

to brownish-tan calcareous sandstones, interformational breccias, and arenaceous limestone, 

dolomitic limestone, and white calcareous sandstone. The thick interformational breccias are 

believed to result from the sloughing of partially lithified fragments coincident with continuing 

sedimentation that cemented the sloughed fragments during a local limited uplift episode along the 

Uinta trend. These sedimentary rocks are the lower part of Swensen's (1975a) "KirkmanDiamond Creek Formation." The upper part grades into thinly-laminated dark-gray limestone and 

arenaceous limestone that weathers bluish-gray, and superficially resembles Kirkman Limestone 

strata in the Wasatch Mountains (Baker and others, 1949). This stratigraphic similarity is the basis 

for believing that the Pass Canyon nappe may be a distal detached imbrication from the upper part 

of the Timpanogos nappe, which seems to predate the arrival of the Bingham nappe.

The original thickness of the Flood Canyon unit also is very problematical because of 

structural uncertainties. The unit is inferred to occur on an imbricate thrust that itself is composed 

of several imbricate thrust slices overlapping the Dry Fork unit and in fault contact with the Rogers 

Canyon nappe rocks, which are downdropped. The Flood Canyon unit is also dropped down 

along its southeastern border, forming a fault contact with the Dry Fork unit. Possibly only a 

minimal thickness of the formational unit is exposed owing to the overlap of its several imbricate 

thrusts and the presence of complex folds within the unit. More definitive mapping, the 

development of a cross section, age dating, measurement of a stratigraphic section, and 

development of a cross section of the Flood Canyon unit in the Oquirrh Mountains also will be 

required before its formal naming is practicable.

46
The Rood Canyon unit is assumed to be younger than the Dry Fork unit, as also 

maintained by Swensen (1975a), and on the basis of regional stratigraphic correlations with 

comparable rock sequences elsewhere in the Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1962). Few reliably dated fossils were found in these rocks, but Welsh and James 

(1961) report fusulinids of Early Permian (Wolfcamp) age.

Structural features

A complexly faulted system of arcuate folds in the Dry Fork and Flood Canyon formational 

units (fig. 8) are distributed across the projection of the Uinta trend buttress. The nappe moved an 

unknown distance more or less directly from a west or west-southwest basin source area (fig. 3). 

In the process of overriding Uinta trend structure, the distinctive clastic Oquirrh Group 

sedimentary rocks in the nappe were folded, locally sheared, and imbricate thrusts, tear, and 

normal faults formed. The structural regimes in the two formations are distinctive in part because 

of their characteristic lithologic compositions. The Dry Fork strata are generally thicker and 

massive, and their fold structures are more open. On the other hand, the thinner-bedded, more 

calcareous strata in the Rood Canyon unit southwest of Nelson Peak are intensely folded and 

fragmented by faults (fig. 8). The overlying thicker-bedded intraformational breccias in the unit 

originally were considered to be a chaos terrane (Schurer, 1979). The intensity of folding in these 

formational units depends on their location in the foreland, whether on or near the uplifted Uinta 

trend. In addition, the upper parts of some Rood Canyon isoclinal folds were redeformed locally 

where they were restressed successively later by the overriding Bingham and Rogers Canyon 

nappes.

Folds Massive quartzites, sandstones, and interbedded limestones of the unit seem to be 

wrapped around an inferred basement ridge in tight asymmetrical folds that are exposed on the 

northwest side of the upper reaches of Flood Canyon. Southward, these tighter folds are covered 

by the Rood Canyon unit, which was thrust over them. Southeast of Pass Canyon, and

47
apparently farther away from the basement promontory, Dry Fork strata occur in more symmetrical 

and open folds. These folds may be followed to the east in an irregular pattern around the 

southeast flank of the inferred basement buttress. The irregular trace of this fold system is believed 

to result from offsetting shifts along tear faults that are concealed beneath the Flood Canyon unit 

thrust block.

Folds in the younger beds of the Flood Canyon unit, for the most part, are composed of 

less-competent, thin-bedded carbonate, shale, and sandstone strata. They were compressed tightly 

at the range front where they were shoved over the Dry Fork rocks on the steep nose of the 

buttress in a series of sheared-out beds and imbricate thrust- and tear-fault offsets. The beds form 

tight, locally asymmetric- to overturned-, in part isoclinally-folded strata that crop out on the 

Oquirrh Mountains ridges west of Nelson Peak, immediately east of the range front between Flood 

and Pass Canyons. Farther up on the slope toward Nelson Peak, where thicker clastic beds in the 

unit overlie a less steeply-dipping upper part of the basement ridge, the folds are crumpled but are 

more open and less sheared.

Along the southeast flank of the basement promontory, tight, asymmetrical to locallyoverturned folds in Flood Canyon rocks overlie an unexposed imbricate thrust separating the two 

Pass Canyon formational units and are generally subparallel with the steeply-dipping, northeasttrending Tooele fault that forms a contact with rocks of the down-dropped Rogers Canyon nappe 

(fig. 8). These folds continue to the northeast as tightly-folded strata until cut off by downdropped Rogers Canyon nappe rocks along a northwest-trending steep fault south of Markers 

Canyon. The Rood Canyon folds that parallel the Tooele fault are complex, particularly at the 

south end where they are cut off by an imbricate thrust and are in angular unconformity with Dry 

Fork unit folds. To the northeast the Flood Canyon folds are less sheared-out along strike and 

although tightly folded, they also become more symmetrical in form along their strike.

Perhaps the best direct evidence for postulating an early arrival of the Pass Canyon nappe is 

from the refolding of its original folds. Sedimentary rocks of the Pass Canyon nappe were 

redeformed locally by the pressure and drag of the successively overriding Bingham and Rogers

48
Canyon thrust lobes, which approached the recesses' promontory buttress from nearly opposite 

directions (fig. 3). The Bingham lobe moved northeastward over the Pass Canyon plate. Its 

impact on the underlying folded sediments is observed in the overturned folds in the Dry Fork unit 

near the mouth of Bingham Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). Folds in the Rood Canyon unit 

southeast of the Tooele fault, between Barneys Peak and Markers Canyon, locally are asymmetrical 

to overturned to the northeast. The impact of emplacement of the Rogers Canyon lobe 

southeastward over the Pass Canyon plate can be seen in a number of localities. Very tight 

isoclinally-folded strata of the Flood Canyon unit on the south side of Rood Canyon near the 

range front are overturned to the northeast at the base of the canyon and overturned to the 

southwest in the upper parts of the same fold. Folds in the more massive quartzite-rich strata of 

the Dry Fork unit on the north side of Rood Canyon are asymmetric and locally overturned to the 

southeast. An east-northeast-trending normal fault, which crosses north of the mouth of Pass 

Canyon, drops the Flood Canyon unit down against the Dry Fork unit (fig. 8). South of this fault, 

thrust fault slivers of intensely folded to overturned Flood Canyon unit rocks occur in klippen 

along the south side of Pass Canyon and overlie the older less-deformed Dry Fork unit, whose 

directions of fold axes differ from those in the Dry Fork unit.

Faults Three main types of faults in the Pass Canyon nappe include normal faults along 

the western border of the Oquirrh Mountains, sole and imbricate thrusts and related tear and normal 

faults within the range. Faults that delimit the nappe and its constituent formational unit boundaries 

are generally steeply-dipping normal or tear faults and thrusts. The northern border separating the 

Pass Canyon and Rogers Canyon nappes on the western slope of the range is along the moderately 

north-dipping North Oquirrh thrust, which underlies the overriding Rogers Canyon nappe. The 

thrust is exposed in Bates Canyon, locally in the fault block north of Barneys Peak, and in klippen 

blocks on the prominent ridge south of Bates Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The northeast 

contact of the Pass Canyon nappe with the Rogers Canyon nappe is along the steep, tear/normal 

Nelson fault, and the Tooele normal fault, whose origin is not well understood. Subsequent

49
normal movements along both of these structures have dropped the Rogers Canyon nappe down. 

The southeast contact of the Pass Canyon and Bingham nappes is successively along the Pine 

Canyon tear fault, the steep-dipping AJ fault, which dropped the Pass Canyon nappe down on the 

east, the Bingham Canyon tear fault, and a northwest-trending fault parallel to the Nelson fault.

The Pass Canyon thrust fault underlies the Pass Canyon nappe, and an imbricate thrust 

separates its two constituent formational units; thrusts are not exposed, being concealed by downdropped blocks of the Rogers Canyon nappe and the overriding thrusts of the Rogers Canyon and 

Bingham nappes. The amount of movement on these faults can not be determined; that on the sole 

thrust may be tens of kilometers while displacements on the imbricate thrusts are very much less. 

The exposed prominent imbricate thrusts within the Flood Canyon unit on the ridge west of Nelson 

Peak are much-limited local structures that mainly disrupt the folds by shearing out less competent 

beds. Their aggregate movement can not be determined without more detailed mapping.

Movement on the imbricate thrusts, particularly those on the lower slopes of the range that 

overlie the steep-plunging basement ridge, was facilitated by the formation of relatively closespaced, steep-dipping tear faults that permitted jostling of the folded strata. Tear faults of this type 

are believed to be formed normal to the fold axes where the folds are tensed by bending into a tight 

arc. An irregular subparallel trend of the folds seems to be a response to the primarily eastnortheast-directed movement and drag of the nappe against the basement structure. The folds are 

also segmented by prominent northwest-trending normal faults. The folded Flood Canyon unit in 

the block southeast of the Tooele fault is not in tension and is not as well segmented by tear faults 

as those noted above.

Numerous steep-dipping normal faults trend northeast and northwest. The northeasttrending faults are the most prominent system within the range. Some of them developed as 

tensional breaks in stressed, arched and folded strata formed during emplacement of the sole 

thrust. Later uplift along the Uinta trend and regional Basin and Range extension undoubtedly 

reactivated and extended earlier-formed faults by normal movement. As a general rule, the offset 

of stratigraphic units along the normal or steep-dipping faults is not large.

50
The Tooele Valley range-front boundary is a series of linked and branching northnorthwest - and west-northwest-trending normal faults that were reactivated during the Basin and 

Range orogeny, and which, in the aggregate, may have more substantial vertical displacement than 

most normal faults in the range. The boundary between the Dry Fork and Hood Canyon units 

along Flood Canyon is a steep tear fault. A small klippen of the Rogers Canyon nappe's Erda 

Formation which is composed of light-gray fossiliferous limestone, occurs on the north-facing 

slope of Bates Canyon. It has been displaced downward a small distance along the northwest- and 

northeast-trending normal fault systems and is surrounded by brown-weathering quartzite and 

calcareous sandstone of the Dry Fork unit.

Location and types of intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks

The tightly-folded Permian sedimentary rocks in the nappe are intruded by 

quartz latite porphyry dikes(?) that are similar in composition to those in the 

Bingham area. Intrusive rocks are not well exposed in the Pass Canyon nappe, and their 

intermittent distribution is believed to be along faults . Only a few isolated, discontinuous, much 

altered patchy outcrops of porphyry dikes(?) generally are found on ridge noses in the Pass 

Canyon nappe (Swensen, 1975a; Tooker and Roberts, 1998). One of these in a tributary of Pass 

Canyon was dated at 36.5 ± 1.1 Ma (Moore, 1973b). Generally they seem to be spatially 

associated with the northeast -trending fault systems such as the Tooele fault (fig. 8). Andesitic 

dikes(?) and latitic volcanic flow rocks along the edges of the eastern side of the range were also 

described briefly by Swensen (1975a), but were not dated.

Associated mineral resources

The mineral resources of the Pass Canyon nappe include the recently discovered and 

developed disseminated gold deposits in the Barneys Canyon and Melco mine areas and abundant 

construction materials that occur along the margins of the nappe in Tooele and Jordan Valleys.

51
The Barneys Canyon and Melco mines Sediment-hosted disseminated gold in the 

Barneys Canyon and Melco deposits (fig. 8, deposits 1 and 2) also contain minor silver (Gunter 

and others, 1990; Babcock and others, 1995). This was a known- less-mineralized area 7 km 

north of the Bingham center that was prospected in earlier times, but its gold potential was 

recognized in 1980 by Jaren Swenson. Exploration followed his collection of a small jasperoid 

breccia sample that assayed 0.2 oz gold per ton (Presnell, 1992). Once considered to be an 

extension of the ore forming event in the Bingham mining district, Presnell and Parry (1996) now 

believe that the gold may have been formed prior to and unrelated to the Bingham porphyry 

deposits. The Barneys Canyon mine is currently active and its early production of gold and silver 

is described by Babcock and others (1995).

Gold occurs in altered permeable beds and along imbricate shear in the Barneys Canyon 

mine. The deposit is localized mainly in the clastic carbonate sedimentary footwall rocks of the 

Flood Canyon unit (and only inadvertantly in an overlying thinned limestone fault block of the 

Grandeur Member of the Park City Formation, which the author believes is on a downdropped 

klippen of an imbricate thrust in the upper plate of the North Oquirrh thrust.)

Presnell and Parry (1996) considered that the Barneys Canyon gold deposition is not be 

related to the poorly exposed sparsely distributed intrusive dike(s) similar to the Bingham 

intrusives of presumed Tertiary age. These intrusives are sited on the northern side of the Uinta 

trend, which is projected across the range southwest of the mine. However, on the basis of Late 

Jurassic (K-Ar) ages of illite clays formed in the Mississippian limestone host rock, they proposed 

that the gold was leached from the host shales and migrated to sites where it encountered meteoric 

water in the crests of anticlines and was deposited. This hypothesis remains to be more rigorously 

tested in future geologic research.

Construction materials Numerous sand and gravel pits that occur in the floor of Tooele 

Valley represent shoreline beach and bar deposits on successive levels of Quaternary Lake 

Bonneville. Thicker bench deposits of sand and gravel along the eastern and western margins of

52
the Oquirrh Mountains also mark successive lake-level shorelines (Tooker and Roberts, 197la). 

These deposits have been extensively mined locally for construction materials for highways, Great 

Salt Lake shoreline-containment dikes, and for construction of nearby milling, smelting, and 

refining facilities.

Bingham Nappe

The sedimentary rock strata comprising the Bingham nappe were folded and faulted as it 

moved generally eastward (fig. 3) on the sole Midas thrust fault. The nappe constitutes the largest 

thrust plate in the Oquirrh Mountains and is believed to extend southward to the East Tintic 

Mountains (Tooker, 1983, and Morris, 1983). The Paleozoic stratigraphic section in the Oquirrh 

Mountains includes lower Paleozoic rocks described originally by Gilluly (1932) and upper 

Paleozoic rocks reported by Tooker and Roberts (1970). The nappe is segmented by major tear 

faults and displays changes in sedimentary rock facies southward (Morris, 1983). The Oquirrh 

Mountains portion of the nappe extends from the vicinity of the Bingham mine to the south end of 

the range (fig. 9). The northern boundary of the nappe lies along steep normal or tear faults that 

separate it from the adjoining Pass Canyon nappe. The Bingham nappe is overlapped from the 

south-southwest by the structurally and stratigraphically discordant South Mountain and Fivemile 

Pass nappes. In the southern part in the Tintic mining district, the Bingham nappe is overlapped 

by the Tintic Valley thrust (Morris, 1983). This thrust also overlaps the Oquirrh Mountains' 

South Mountain nappe from the west. 

FIGURE 9, NEAR HERE

A nearly continuous stratigraphic section exposed in the central and southern parts of the 

Oquirrh Mountains is approximately 8,000 m thick and contains rocks ranging in age from the 

Cambrian Tintic Quartzite upwards to an eroded top in the Pennsylvania Bingham Mine 

Formation. The main stratigraphic features of the constituent formations are summarized in 

columnar sections and in tables that follow. Several revisions of Gilluly's original lower Paleozoic 

formation nomenclature, noted in the following summary, are the result of more recent

53
stratigraphic studies in the Oquirrh Mountains and in neighboring areas in central Utah. The 

individual formations in the Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains are delineated on geologic 

maps by Tooker (1980, 1987, and 1992) and looker and Roberts (1988 and 1992). Figure 9 is 

generalized with minor revisions from those reports.

Erosion has removed younger Phanerozoic rocks that may have been present originally in 

the Oquirrh Mountains; these rocks are present elsewhere in the southern part of the nappe in the 

East Tintic Mountains,. Precambrian rocks, which underlie the Tintic Quartzite elsewhere in this 

region, are not exposed in the Oquirrh Mountains, but may be concealed in the nappe beneath the 

Tintic Quartzite. Precambrian-age basement rocks are inferred to underlie the Midas thrust in the 

Oquirrh Mountains.

Paleozoic sedimentary rocks have been folded by the sole Midas thrust and overlying 

imbricate thrusts into the through-going main Bingham syncline, Long Ridge anticline, Pole 

Canyon syncline, and Ophir anticline, and by numerous local secondary folds . Tear faults 

segment the folds, particularly where they are bent. Normal faults developed during Late 

Cretaceous Sevier thrust faulting have, in some cases, been reactivated by Basin and Range 

extensional tectonics. These faults are more close-spaced in the lower Paleozoic rocks on the 

upper-plate of the Manning (imbricate) thrust. Similarly the upper Paleozoic rocks on the thinned 

lead edge of the upper plate of the Midas thrust are also more intensely fractured than elsewhere in 

the main parts of the range.

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 

Sedimentary rocks of the Bingham nappe in figure 9 have been grouped into (a) those of 

Lower Paleozoic age (PI), (b) the Manning Canyon Shale (PMm), which contains the 

Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary, and (c) Upper Paleozoic strata (Po). Correlations are 

made with similar-aged rocks within the nappes adjoining the Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh 

Mountains and comparably-aged nappes in neighboring mountain ranges. Lowest Paleozoic rocks 

are assumed to form the base of the stratigraphic section comprising the Bingham nappe on the

54
Midas thrust fault in the Oquirrh Mountains. Farther south at Tintic, Utah, the upper part of the 

Precambrian Big Cottonwood Formation forms the base of the Bingham nappe.

Lower Paleozoic Formations The Lower Paleozoic stratigraphic section in the Oquirrh 

Mountains is 2,812 m thick. The formations (shown in table 2) range from Cambrian quartzite to 

Mississippian limestone and crop out mainly in the cores of the Ophir anticline and eastern part of 

the Long Ridge anticline in the southern Oquirrh Mountains (fig 9); these formations are shown 

diagrammatically in a columnar section (fig. 10). The sedimentary rocks are correlated with rocks 

of the same ages in the Tintic mining district in figure 4 (Morris and Levering, 1961, and Morris, 

1983). Substantial facies changes occur southward in the Lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in 

the Bingham nappe. This is perhaps best illustrated in comparing the Great Blue Formation at 

Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961) with the measured section of the Great Blue Limestone in the 

Oquirrh Mountains (Gordon , Tooker and Dutro, 2000). In addition, the Lower Paleozoic 

stratigraphic section in the Oquirrh Mountains is attenuated at an unconformity caused by the uplift 

of the Tooele arch of Webb (1958) along the Uinta trend (Roberts, and others, 1965). As a result, 

in the absence of sedimentary rock deposition (or, possibly, the erosion of any sediments that may 

have been deposited on the plate), the Ordovician, Silurian, and most of the Devonian parts of the 

stratigraphic section, which are present at Tintic, do not occur either in the Oquirrh Mountains or 

on Mount Timpanogos in the Wasatch Mountains. I presume that the hinterland of these nappes 

were located in sites closer to the then uplifted Uinta trend than was the southern part of the 

Bingham nappe at Tintic. 

FIGURE 10, and TABLE 2, NEAR HERE

The lowermost exposed Lower Paleozoic formation in the Oquirrh Mountains is the 91mthick Lower Cambrian Tintic Quartzite and 98 m-thick Lower and Middle Cambrian Ophir 

Formation, which were described originally by Gilluly (1932). The base is concealed and the total 

thickness of the Tintic Quartzite here is unknown. It is a thick-bedded, commonly cross-bedded 

white quartzite whose weathered surfaces are a rusty red-brown. The formation is shaly at the top

55
and grades upward into the Lower and Middle Cambrian Ophir Formation, which primarily is a 98 

m-thick micaceous shale that becomes sandy upward and contains several mottled shaly limestone 

beds. In the Tintic Mountains the Tintic Quartzite is 800 to 975 m thick and underlain by the 

Precambrian Big Cottonwood(?) Formation. The Tintic Quartzite may be thinned by the (sole) 

Midas thrust in the Oquirrh Mountains or by nondeposition due to gradual uplift and erosion along 

the Uinta trend. The Ophir Formation at Tintic is 116m thick.

The Middle Cambrian Hartman and Bowman Limestones conformably overlie the Ophir 

Formation in the Oquirrh Mountains and are 198 m and 85 m thick, respectively (Gilluly, 1932). 

The Hartman Limestone is a thin-bedded, mottled-gray limestone and mudstone with shale partings 

and oolite layers near its top. The Bowman Limestone consists of a shaly unit at its base, but is 

mainly a mottled shaly limestone with intraformational conglomerate in the lower part and oolite 

limestone beds in the upper part. The two formations are correlated with the lower parts of the 

Teutonic Limestone, 128 m thick, and Herkimer Limestone, 130 m thick, at Tintic. The 20 m 

Middle Cambrian Dagmar Dolomite, which occurs at Tintic, has no correlative rock unit in the 

Oquirrh Mountains.

The Middle Cambrian formations are overlain conformably in the Oquirrh Mountains by the 

massive bedded Upper Cambrian Lynch Dolomite, which is 251-305 m thick (Gilluly, 1932). The 

massive cliff exposures of Lynch Dolomite on the south side of Ophir Canyon are thick-bedded, 

gray dolomite with a few interbedded limestone units in the lower half.

The lower part resembles the 62 m thick Bluebird Dolomite at Tintic and the upper part is similar to 

the Cole Canyon Formation, which is 259 m thick in the East Tintic Mountains. There are no 

formational units in the Oquirrh Mountains correlative with the Upper Cambrian Opex Formation 

and Ajax Dolomite,- which are 75 and 152-213 m thick, respectively at Tintic.

Also missing in the Oquirrh Mountains are several formational units found at Tintic, which 

include the Lower Ordovician Opohonga Limestone, 259 m thick, the Middle Ordovician Fish 

Haven Dolomite, as much as 107 m thick, the Upper Ordovician, Silurian, and Lower Devonian

56
Bluebell Dolomite, up to 183 m thick, and the Lower Devonian Victoria Quartzite, 97 m thick 

(Morris and Lovering, 1961).

A 56-m thick Lower Mississippian and Upper Devonian Fitchville Formation and Piny on 

Peak Limestone, undivided, unconformably overlies the Lynch Dolomite near Ophir. The 

formation is a coarsely crystalline gray dolomite that weathers dark gray. The base of the unit is 

composed of thin-bedded gray sandstone and limestone that weathers reddish brown. One 

massive gray limestone unit in the upper part, called the "eye bed," contains large oval calcite 

blebs. This marker bed also occurs in the Fitchville Formation at Tintic. Originally called the 

Jefferson(?) Dolomite by Gilluly (1932), based on his tentative correlation of it with the Jefferson 

Dolomite in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Utah, the rocks are now recognized as strongly 

resembling characteristic segments of counterparts that occur in the Tintic mining district (Morris 

and Lovering, 1961). The formations were attenuated in the Oquirrh Mountains along the Uinta 

trend, whereas in the Tintic mining district the Pinyon Peak and Fitchville Formations aggregate 

121m.

The Pinyon Peak and Fitchville strata are unconformably overlain in the Oquirrh Mountains 

by the 140 in-thick Lower Mississippian Gardison Limestone. This formation was originally 

called Madison Limestone in the Oquirrh Mountains by Gilluly (1932), a correlation made with its 

type locality in Montana. The Gardison Limestone is now correlated with a revised type locality, 

152 m thick, on Gardison Ridge in the Tintic mining district (Morris and Lovering, 1961). The 

Gardison Limestone at Ophir is a highly fossiliferous blue-gray limestone, thin-bedded at the 

base, and more massive and cherty in its upper parts.

Above the Gardison Limestone at Ophir are conformable limestone beds of Upper 

Mississippian age that include the Deseret Limestone, 198 m thick, and the more clastic Humbug 

Formation, about 198 m thick. The Deseret Limestone is medium-bedded, blue-gray, cherty 

limestone containing a phosphatic shale unit at the base (Gilluly, 1932). The Humbug Formation 

is composed of interbedded limestone and some prominent lenticular sandstone and quartzite

57
layers. The Humbug locally seems to interfmger with or grade into the Great Blue Limestone. At 

Tintic, correlative rock strata are 355 m thick.

The upper Mississippian Great Blue Limestone conformably overlies the Humbug 

Formation. The Great Blue Limestone is 765 m thick and subdivided into three informal members 

by Gilluly (1932). Gordon, Tooker and Dutro (2000) propose more formal recognition of these 

members. The Silveropolis limestone member (the lower limestone member of Gilluly) at the base 

is 260 m thick and includes beds comparable with the thicker Toplif and Paymaster members of the 

Great Blue Formation at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961), which there are 141 and 190 m thick, 

respectively. The Silveropolis limestone member consists of a lower basal dark-gray, thickbedded limestone, and interbedded locally fossiliferous and argillaceous limestone. An upper part 

includes thin- to medium-bedded, somewhat fossiliferous, gray argillaceous, sandy, and cherty 

limestones, which grade into similar beds that weather brownish gray. This member is succeeded 

conformably by the 33 m Long Trail Shale Member, a very fossiliferous black carbonaceous 

limestone and shale. The Member forms a prominent topographic break in the Oquirrh Mountains 

that is not observed at Tintic. The conformable overlying Mercur limestone member of the Great 

Blue Limestone (the upper limestone of Gilluly, 1932) is 470 m thick and consists of banded 

outcrops of interbedded limestone, fossiliferous and argillaceous limestone, and shale. Calcareous 

sandstones occur in the upper part. The member contains fewer and thinner shale beds than those 

that characterize the Chiulos and Polker Knoll Members of Morris and Lovering (1961), which 

aggregate as much as 487 m at Tintic.

Manning Canyon Shale The 347 m-thick Upper Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvania 

Manning Canyon Shale is composed of interbedded shale, argillaceous limestone, sandstone and a 

medial brown-weathering quartzite. The formation seems to overlie the Great Blue Limestone 

conformably and in turn is overlain conformably by the Oquirrh Group (Tooker and Roberts, 

1970). However, in Manning Canyon, east of the Mercur mining district, the Great Blue 

Limestone is locally thrust over the Manning Canyon Shale, and locally in West Canyon the 

contact locally seems to be along the West Canyon imbricate thrust. At Tintic the formation is of

58
nearly comparable thickness at 320 m . It is shown as a separate formation on figure 16 to mark 

the boundary between the lower and upper Paleozoic rocks in the Oquirrh Mountains.

Upper Paleozoic Formations Upper Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the Bingham nappe 

consist of three Oquirrh Group formations. They crop out as broad north- to north-northwesttrending folds (fig. 9) in the higher northern and eastern parts of the Oquirrh Mountains. The type 

localities of the constituent formations described by Tooker and Roberts (1970) are in the northcentral Oquirrh Mountains, near the Bingham mining district. The stratigraphic section is 5,177 m 

thick and, except as noted above, conformably overlies the Manning Canyon Shale. This 

sedimentary sequence originally was named the Oquirrh Formation by Gilluly (1932). It was 

raised to the Oquirrh Group by Welsh and James (1961). Three formations, the West Canyon 

Limestone, the Butterfield Peaks and Bingham Mine Formations, are described briefly in table 3 

(after Tooker and Roberts, 1970), and paleontologic ages and regional correlations were discussed 

by Gordon, and Duncan (1970). 

TABLE 3, NEAR HERE

The basal formation of the Oquirrh Group is the 442 m -thick Lower Pennsylvanian West 

Canyon Limestone, an interbedded, cyclic repetition of primarily clastic, thin- to medium-bedded, 

very fossiliferous series of arenaceous, bioclastic, cheity, dense crystalline, and argillaceous 

limestones and thin calcareous quartzite beds in the upper part (Nygreen 1958). These are well 

exposed in outcrops in Soldier Canyon. Gordon and Duncan (1970) reported a Morrowan (lower 

Pennsylvanian) age for these rocks.

The 2,765 m-thick Middle Pennsylvanian Butterfield Peaks Formation, which 

conformably overlies the West Canyon Limestone, is also an interbedded, thick, cyclic, thin- to 

medium-bedded, locally cross-bedded calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, and calcareous 

sandstone and prominent dense limestone, abundantly fossiliferous limestone, and arenaceous, 

cheity, and argillaceous limestones. The formation is of Des Moinesian (middle Pennsylvanian) 

age (Gordon and Duncan, 1970).

59
The Butterfield Peaks Formation is, in turn, conformably overlain by the Upper 

Pennsylvanian Bingham Mine Formation, which includes the 910 m and 1,319 m thick Clipper 

Ridge and overlying Markham Peak Members. The Clipper Ridge Member is composed 

predominantly of interbedded medium- to thick-bedded calcareous quartzite and orthoquaitzite, 

with lesser amounts of cherty limestone and locally very thick, thin-bedded argillaceous, cherty, 

sandy, and fossiliferous limestone marker beds. Thick fossiliferous limestone units such as the 

Jordan and Commercial marker beds at the base of the Member (Tooker and Roberts, 1970) are as 

much as 82 m thick, in contrast with those in the overlying Markham Peak Member (figs 14 and 15 

in Hansen, 1961), which are 3-21 m thick. The Clipper Ridge Member limestones are interbedded 

with quartzite units 46-91 m thick. The Markham Peak Member is composed mainly of thickbedded to massive orthoquaitzite and calcareous quartzite, sandstone, and silt. A few interbedded 

thin, 0.3-1 m-thick, fusulimd-bearing arenaceous limestone marker beds are present. These 

marker limestones at the base and several thinner (0.3-1 m thick) limestones higher in the 

stratigraphic section are the primary beds replaced by base-metal sulfide ores in the Bingham 

district. (Rubright and Hart, 1968; and Atkinson and Einaudi, 1978) The sediments in the Oquirrh 

Group formations are well-sorted and their clean-appearing, weathered surfaces are not iron- or 

manganese-stained, in contrast with those of similar age and composition in the Pass Canyon 

nappe.

No lower Permian fossils were reported in these Bingham nappe rocks by Gordon and 

Duncan (1970). Permian ages reported for the upper parts of the stratigraphic section by Welsh 

and James (1961) were based on rocks that Tooker and Roberts (1988) now include in the Pass 

Canyon nappe on the basis of mapped structural and stratigraphic considerations. The absence of 

Permian sedimentary rocks in the Bingham nappe may be due to nondeposition or erosion along 

the trace of the Uinta trend.

Correlation with nappes in adjoining ranges containing Oquirrh Group-age sedimentary 

rocks Correlative Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks in the surrounding Wasatch, Tintic, and

60
Stansbury Mountains also occur in Sevier-age nappes whose formations generally are of similar 

ages and composition but differ in stratigraphic and structural detail from those in the Oquirrh 

Mountains. In the Wasatch Mountains, east of the Oquirrh Mountains, two contrasting 

stratigraphic systems were recognized by Baker and others (1949) and Crittenden and others 

(1952). The thick Oquirrh basin-derived miogeoclinal deposits of the Timpanogos nappe on the 

sole Nebo-Charleston thrust lie on the southern side of the Uinta trend buttress. A thin Mount 

Raymond nappe deposited on or near the cratonal platform in the Sublette basin lies on the north 

side of the Uinta trend. South of the Oquirrh Mountains in the Tintic Mountains, the southernmost 

part of the Bingham nappe clearly overrides the Timpanogos nappe. The Stansbury (Mountains) 

nappe lies west of the Oquirrh Mountain and moved eastward on the sole Tintic Valley thrust, 

overriding the Bingham nappe (Tooker, 1983). The ages of the Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks 

in these nappes, documented by Gordon and Duncan (1970), are based on both abundant megaand micro-fossil assemblages and provide ample correlation of the Oquirrh fauna and host 

sediments in the Bingham nappe with those in adjoining Sevier-age nappes in western Utah.

Crittenden (1959, 1976) described two contrasting stratigraphic systems of Oquirrh-type 

sediments in the Wasatch Mountains (fig. 4) and contrasted their thin and thick sequences. Both 

now seem to represent Sevier-age nappes derived from different parts of the western miogeocline 

hinterland. The thin Mount Raymond nappe is about 241 m thick and composed of Early and 

Middle Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks that rest conformably on lower platform Paleozoic strata. 

A correlative sedimentary rock sequence on the Rogers Canyon nappe in the northern Oquirrh 

Mountains is discussed later. The thick Timpanogos nappe, which was deposited in the Oquirrh 

basin south of the Uinta trend is, in contrast, 8,600 m thick, and composed of carbonate-rich 

sedimentary rocks much like those of comparable ages in the Oquirrh Mountains. Lower Paleozoic 

rocks, which are about 1920 m thick, conformably underlie the Oquirrh Group. These include an 

Early and Middle Pennsylvanian section 2,300 m thick, a Middle Pennsylvanian sequence 3,300 m 

thick, and an Early Permian section about 3,000 m thick (Konopka and Dott, 1982). These rocks 

are overlain conformably by Permian and Triassic carbonates and sandstones.

61
Comparable parts of the Bingham nappe's Oquirrh Group in the in the Tintic region (fig. 4) 

include a partial section, 293 m thick, of Morrowan-Atokan-age West Canyon Limestone, the Des 

Moinesian Butterfield Peaks Formation, 1,768 m thick, the Missourian age Bingham Mine 

Formation, 975 m thick, and the Missouri-Virgil-Wolfcamp age Furner Valley Limestone, which is 

1,595 m thick. Morris and others (1977) reported that post-Oquirrh Group Paleozoic rocks in the 

southern East Tintic Mountains overlie these rocks disconformably and include the 209 m 

Leonardian (?)-age Diamond Creek Sandstone and 494 m Leonardian-Guadalupian-age Park City 

Formation. One may speculate that if Permian rocks overlay the Pennsylvanian rocks exposed in 

the northern end of the Bingham nappe in the Bingham mining district, they most probably were 

eroded during the Tertiary uplift along the Uinta trend. Apparently intermittent or continuous uplift 

along the trend continued during the formation of Tertiary igneous and intrusive rocks..

The stratigraphy and structures of 548 m of Oquirrh Group rocks in the Stansbury nappe 

on the upper plate of the Tintic Valley thrust were described by Rigby (1958) and Moore and 

Sorensen (1979). The Group conformably overlies about 651 m of distinctive Lower Paleozoic 

rocks that include a record of sedimentation during Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian times, 

which is missing across the valley in the Oquirrh Mountains. These sedimentary rocks seem to 

resemble those deposited in the Oquirrh basin away from the Uinta trend. Manning Canyon Shale 

is 54 m thick and overlain by the Oquirrh Group. It consist of 61 m of Morrowan and Atokan 

carbonates, 122 m of Desmoinsian-, 26 m of Missourian-, and 139 m of Virgil-age interbedded, 

cyclic carbonate and quartzite sedimentary rocks. These are overlain unconformably by Tertiary 

rocks.

Structural features

Bingham nappe fold and fault structures in the central and southern Oquirrh Mountains, 

largely the result of their emplacement by the sole Midas thrust fault, vary depending on the 

structural competence of rock strata involved, their proximity to the leading edges of sole and 

imbricate thrusts and to the basement Uinta trend buttress. Through-going main folds are the most

62
prominent structures in the range, but these are overprinted by secondary folds, which are of more 

local or limited extent, generally on the upper plates of imbricate thrusts. The sole Midas thrust 

does not crop out at the surface; it may be exposed underground in the workings of the North 

skarn-ore deposit in Bingham Canyon (Shrier, oral communication, 1989) and inferred from 

cross-sections in fig. 7 by Babcock and others (1995) showing complex folding of the Jordan and 

Commercial marker beds at depth north of the Bingham mine. The structure of the upper plate of 

the thrust along its leading edge in the nappe was inferred by Tooker and Roberts (1988) from the 

pattern of exposed structures such as folds, imbricate thrusts, and tear faults shown on the surface 

mine maps of the Bingham mining district by Lanier (1978a) and Atkinson and Einaudi (1978). 

The trace of the Midas thrust shown on the district map by James and others (196la) does not 

seem to be the sole Midas thrust, but is a more local imbrication above the main thrust fault. This 

sustains their view that this thrust is not of regional scope. However, the sole Midas thrust is 

believed to underlie the northern part of the Bingham mine and is not exposed because it is 

downdropped along northwest-trending normal faults. Tear faults that offset folded strata at the 

lead edges of the Midas thrusts are important local structures for siting intrusive rocks and ore 

bearing veins in the main mining districts of the central and southern Oquirrh Mountains. Some 

normal faults may have been reactivated by Basin and Range extension of original Sevier-age 

structures.

Folds Two principal types of folds have been mapped as main (named) and secondary 

folds in figure 10. Folds developed in Oquirrh Group formations that are composed of very thick, 

massive, and competent strata, form the main fold system on the upper plate of the Midas thrust 

fault. These include the through-going Long Ridge and Ophir anticlines flanked by the Pole 

Canyon and Bingham synclines. Except for the Ophir anticline, which is described later, these 

folds form the high backbone of the range and are broad, of high amplitude, generally northnorthwest-trending structures that bend to the northwest at their north ends. Where the thinned 

stratigraphic section at the leading edge of the thrust impinges tangentially on the Uinta trend

63
basement buttress, the folds become asymmetric and are locally overturned to the northeast, and 

their northern parts plunge to the northwest under Tooele Valley. Secondary, smaller-amplitude, 

tightly-folded, and locally overturned fold structures commonly bounded by tear faults, occur 

along the thinned leading edges of imbricate thrusts within the Bingham nappe. These include 

several small thrusts in the Bingham mining district, the more extensive Butterfield Pass, Manning, 

and West Canyon thrusts southwest of Bingham, and those on the upper plate of the Manning 

thrust along the western range-front of the Oquirrh Mountains.

Fold patterns provide some insight to the complex sedimentary rock structures located on 

the upper plate of the Midas thrust, which are largely obscured by the intrusive stocks, dikes, and 

waste dumps in the Bingham mining district (Tooker and Roberts, 1998). The main Bingham 

syncline on Markham Peak is overturned to the northeast. Across the northeast-trending tear 

faults in Bingham Canyon, the continuing offset portion of this fold is more open and its 

asymmetry decreases as it trends southeastward. In the zone between the Bingham Canyon and 

Main Hill faults, on the western side of the Bingham open-pit mine, numerous low amplitude 

secondary folds are close-spaced and overturned, as if they were crunched together. The similar 

concentration of secondary folds that occurs in the area between the Bingham and Last Chance 

stocks apparently are formed on the upper plate of an imbricate thrust of the Midas system. The 

Galena Gulch folds at the southern margin of this close-spaced system clearly intersect the 

Bingham syncline and its related secondary folds in angular unconformity east of the Galena Chief 

fault. Northwest of the Bingham Canyon fault, secondary folds are generally continuous and 

swing around the south edge of the Last Chance stock and are much less deformed.

The Long Ridge (main) anticline is tightly folded and overturned locally at its western end 

near Tooele, but broadens along Long Ridge on the eastern side of the range in West Canyon. It 

is accompanied by numerous secondary folds in the less competent Lower Paleozoic Manning 

Canyon Shale and Great Blue Limestone strata. Secondary folds were also formed on the leading 

edges of imbricate thrusts such as the Butterfield Peaks thrust on the south side of Middle 

Canyon. The secondary folds on the flanks of the main Pole Canyon syncline, on the other hand,

64
form gentle, wide-spaced, broad open folds, in large part, probably the result of its indigenous 

thick competent constituent Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks, and the absence of an imbricate 

thrust along this fold.

The Ophir anticline constitutes the western side of the southern Oquirrh Mountains (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1998). It is generally parallel or subparallel to the other main folds in the range and 

crops out on the low ridge west of Manning Canyon and the south fork of Ophir Canyon. In 

contrast with the northeastern main folds composed of Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks, the 

Ophir anticline exposes lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. The stratigraphic section consists of 

interbedded thin- and medium-bedded carbonates, shaly limestone, and quartzose sedimentary 

rocks (sheet 3 of Tooker 1987). These more-abundant, thin-bedded argillaceous limestone and 

shale units are less competent than the thick siliceous beds comprising the Oquirrh Group. 

Characteristic lithologic compositions apparently determine different responses to compressional 

forces in each stack during folding attendant with thrusting.

The Ophir anticline is located in the upper plate of the Manning thrust, an upper imbrication 

of the Bingham nappe that moved only a moderate distance eastward to overlap the west side of the 

Pole Canyon syncline east of Mercur. The Ophir fold trends sinuously southeastward. At its 

northern end, the fold is concealed beneath local imbricate thrusts along the western range front as 

it plunges beneath Tooele Valley. The south end of the fold plunges to the south and is overlapped 

by the Fivemile Pass nappe. In between these terminal parts of the fold the symmetry of the 

anticline changes south of Ophir Canyon and the Lion tear fault, North of the tear, as seen on the 

north wall of Ophir Canyon (cross section A'-A", in Tooker, 1987), the fold is a high amplitude, 

nearly symmetrical structure, exposing the complete Lower Paleozoic stratigraphic section. South 

of the Lion tear fault, the fold is an asymmetrical, flatter, broader, much faulted arc (cross-section 

B'-B"" in Tooker, 1987). Locally, east of Mercur in Manning Canyon, the eastern limb of the 

Ophir anticline becomes steeply east-dipping to near-vertical. The Great Blue Limestone is 

overturned locally where thrust over the younger Manning Canyon Shale. The west side of the 

Ophir anticline (and the range) consists of gently-dipping slopes that contain a series of close65
spaced, low- amplitude folds. Discontinuous secondary flexures formed on low-angle, west - 

dipping small-throw thrust faults are sub-parallel with the Ophir structure.

The flattening of the southern part of the Ophir anticline (south of the Lion Hill tear fault) 

may in part be the result of stretching caused by the Mercur (imbricate) thrust and later "partial 

collapse" of a less-competent, more highly fractured part of the Oquirrh Mountains during the 

Basin and Range east-west extension. This structural regime contrasts with the northward 

continuation of the same fold where it more nearly resembles the other main folds in the range. 

North of Ophir Canyon and the Lion Hill tear fault, the range also becomes much more rugged 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1992) where it overlies the uplifted Uinta trend basement structure. In the 

Dry Canyon area on the west side of the fold, steep, gently-folded steeply-dipping imbricate 

thrusts place older lower Mississippian carbonates such as the Humbug Formation, Deseret 

Limestone, and Gardison Limestone as well as the Silveropolis member of the Great Blue 

Limestone over over younger strata and conceal the northward exposure of the anticline, and 

develop small subparallel secondary folds are developed in the upper plate (Tooker, 1998).

Faults Thrust, tear, and normal faults, shown in figure 9, define the boundaries as well 

as the internal configuration in the Bingham nappe. The fault pattern is controlled in part by the 

characteristic sedimentary rock strata that comprise discrete areas in the nappe, and in part by the 

location of the nappe on the Uinta trend buttress. The northern border of the nappe is defined by 

the sole Midas thrust, which is down-dropped and concealed by normal and tear faults in the 

Bingham mining district (Tooker and Roberts, 1998). The west edge of the nappe is bounded by 

intersecting northeast- and northwest-trending range-front normal faults. The range-front faults are 

overlain locally by Harkers Fanglomerate and by alluvial debris shed off that part of the range 

overlying the Uinta trend, whose uplift continued. The south end of the nappe in the Oquirrh 

Mountains is overlapped by the Fivemile Pass thrust and extensive alluvial deposits in Cedar 

Valley. The eastern side of the nappe is overlapped by Tertiary volcanic rocks and Quaternary

66
gravels along the range front and in the Western Traverse Mountains, which adjoin the Oquirrh 

Mountains.

The Bingham nappe moved east, east-northeast to northeastward on the Midas thrust fault, 

depending on whether it approached the Uinta-Basin low or moved onto the Uinta-trend basement 

buttress and the previously docked Pass Canyon nappe. Movement was modified by tear faults 

that permitted segments of the folded nappe to push ahead semi-independently. The Bingham 

nappe is stratigraphically and structurally thinned northeastward by the Midas thrust Tightlyfolded and sheared upper Oquirrh Group strata occur along the lead edge of the nappe in the 

Bingham mining district, whereas a few kilometers to the southwest at Ophir, the complete 

stratigraphic section includes Cambrian Tintic Quartzite at its base (Tooker, 1992). Although the 

basal strand of the sole Midas thrust is not exposed in the Oquirrh Mountains, an upper imbricate 

strand was identified as the Midas by James and others (196la), and other structurally higher 

imbricate thrusts noted by Einaudi (1975) also occur in tight asymmetrical to overturned folded 

sedimentary rocks at the lead edge of the nappe in the Bingham mining district (Tooker, 1998). 

James and others (196la) correctly indicated that their Midas thrust was not of regional 

consequence. Thus a lower (or sole Midas) thrust is inferred here.

The Bingham nappe contains a number of additional imbricate thrust faults, some of which 

are traceable for long distances across the range, but themselves generally show relatively minor 

stratigraphic displacement. In general, movement on these minor thrusts is small in comparison 

with that which must have occurred on the basal Midas thrust, and they occur mainly on the 

asymmetrical to overturned flanks of the main anticlines formed in the Paleozoic strata. Older 

sedimentary units apparently moved ahead to overlap younger units, usually being offset by tear 

and normal faults. Imbricate thrusts in the range, such as the Butterfield Pass and West Canyon 

thrusts, are en-echelon along the locally asymmetrical Long Ridge anticline. They ramped older 

parts of the Oquirrh Group over younger parts. The Manning thrust underlies Lower Paleozoic 

formations that constitute the broad, flattened Ophir anticline; the thrust locally places older Great 

Blue Limestone strata over the Manning Canyon Shale east of Mercur. The West Canyon thrust,

67
which is developed on the north side of the increasingly asymmetric Long Ridge anticline, ramps 

Manning Canyon Shale over the younger West Canyon Limestone.

Imbricate thrusts on the southwest limb of the Ophir anticline east of Mercur consist mainly 

of a series of small displacements of the Silveropolis limestone, probably along the Long Trail 

Shale beds, over the upper Mercur limestone members of the Great Blue Limestone. Outcrops of 

the shallowly-west-dipping Silveropolis member are also repeated on the west slopes of the range. 

At the mouth of Ophir Canyon, the Manning Canyon Shale is in thrust contact with the Great Blue 

Limestone. Immediately north of Ophir Canyon and along the projection of the Uinta trend uplift, 

the imbricate steep-dipping thrusts in the Dry Canyon area and northwestward locally involve 

moving stratigraphic units as low as the Gardner Limestone over the Mercur limestone member of 

the Great Blue Limestone (Tooker and Roberts, 1998).

Tension produced in arched folds caused by oblique ramping of the nappe against the Uinta 

bulge, as at Bingham, promoted the formation of prominent, close-spaced, steep-dipping, 

northeast-trending tear faults normal to the fold axes. These tear faults segmented the secondary 

folds, locally causing the irregular displacement of fold axes forward for short distances, as seen 

in the Bingham mine area (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). Tear faults in the Oquirrh Group strata 

commonly seem to be thorough-going. A tear fault in the Ophir Canyon east of Ophir that bounds 

an imbricate thrust in the nappe overlaps a tear fault in the lower plate. This results in what at first 

may seem to be a through-going tear. However, they seem to have moved short distances in 

opposing directions (Tooker, 1992). Movement along the Lion tear fault, which terminates the 

southern part of the Manning thrust, and movement on a tear, which at first seemed to be a 

continuation of the Lion thrust farther up Ophir Canyon, are in opposite directions the south side 

of the tear in upper Ophir Canyon moved south while the south side of the Lion tear moved north. 

These structural relations indicate that they are separate faults in chance alignment by the later 

emplaced imbricate Manning thrust fault.

Normal faults in the range are steep-dipping, generally northeast- and northwest-trending 

structures that seem to have only modest movement within the range in terms of offset formations,

68
but have much greater vertical displacement along the range borders and in the valleys beyond. 

The intersection of these faults produce the saw-tooth western range front of the Oquirrh 

Mountains. The northeast-trending steep-dipping faults predominate in the northern part of the 

nappe in which the folded strata are bent to the northwest. The northwest-trending faults are more 

apparent in the southern part of the range where the Ophir fold begins to bend southward, Steeplydipping, west-northwest-trending normal faults, which are nearly conjugate to the tear faults 

exhibit only moderate displacement of formational contacts. One of these, the northwest-trending 

Bear Trap Flat fault, extends southeastward from the mouth of Middle Canyon into the range to the 

headwaters of Soldier Creek. It is an important aquifer and several springs located along it are 

major sources of water for the cities of Tooele and Stockton, Utah (Stolp, 1994).

Normal faults seem to be more abundant in the thin- to medium-bedded Mississippian 

limestones and shales exposed on the upper plate of the Manning thrust (fig. 9). Here northwesttrending faults are observed as modest offsets along formational contacts (Tooker, 1992). At 

Ophir Canyon, the faults trend northwestward, but their trend shifts southward to the westnorthwest in the Mercur Canyon area. This bending of the fault trend, which is coincident with the 

bending in the Ophir fold, is considered to be the result of thrust tectonics in thin, less competent 

strata on the upper plate of the Manning thrust. However, normal faults observed in Rush Valley, 

to the west of Mercur and the range front, trend to the northwest and probably are the result of 

Basin and Range extensional deformation. The western margin of the Oquirrh Mountains is 

defined by progressive down drop to the west along the systems of normal faults forming 

extensive thin-covered pediments, such as occurs between Ophir and Mercur Canyons. In 

contrast, normal faults are not as abundant in the Pole Canyon syncline, possibly because the 

sedimentary rocks are more massive and competent and the trend of the fold is straight, not bent. 

This results in constituent formational units that are not greatly offset. The through-going 

conjugate, northeast-trending normal faults in the Ophir mining district, which may have originated 

as tear faults, later became sites for the deposit of fissure-type ores.

69
Location and types of intrusive and extrusive rocks

The Bingham nappe is not only the largest thrust terrane in the Oquirrh Mountains, 

but it also contains the greatest amount and variety of intrusive and extrusive rocks in the 

range (Table 1); these rocks are somewhat endemic to specific regions therein (Butler, 

1915). The Bingham mine area is the major center of intrusive and extrusive activity, 

followed by progressively lesser intrusive activity in the Middle Canyon-Soldier Creek 

area, the Lion Hill-Porphyry Knob and the Mercur-Ophir mining areas (Figs. 11 and 12). 

FIGURES 11 AND 12, NEAR HERE.

Bingham mining district area Oquirrh Mountains' igneous activity began here 

with the formation of intrusive stocks, sills, and dikes and ended with extrusive volcanic 

flows (Bray, 1969; Moore and others (1968); and Babcock and others (1995). Details 

about the distribution, age, and chemical and physical properties of these rocks on which 

this summary is based are by Moore and Lanphere (1971); Moore (1973b, 1973c), Bray 

and others (1975), Moore (1978); Lanier and others (1978a, 19785), Swensen (1975a), 

Warnaars and others (1978), Bowman and others (1987); and Babcock and others (1995). 

There remains some uncertainty about the accuracy of some of the age dates because of the 

hydrothermal overprint on the rocks in the mining district.

The Last Chance and Bingham stocks, which are now known to be interconnected 

at depth (Lanier, and others, 1978a), are composed of an early equigranular monzonite 

phase, beginning at about 39.8 ± 0.4 Ma that has been intruded along the northwestern 

border of the Bingham stock by quartz monzonite porphyry, beginning at about 38 Ma(?). 

These rocks, which are intrusive into the Clipper Ridge and Markham Peak Members of the 

Bingham Mine Formation and underlying Butterfield Peaks Formation, are, in turn, cut by 

latite and quartz latite dikes and plugs (about 37.7 ± 0.5 Ma) in age), and subsequently by 

quartz latite porphyry dikes and plugs. An intrusive porphyritic latite sill (about 36.9 ± 

1.0 Ma) occurs southeast of Lark, Utah. Northeast-trending latite dikes along the range

70
front between the mouth of Barneys Canyon and Lark may be about the same age. Several 

pebble dikes and breccia pipes up to 180 m diameter and as much as 910 m in vertical 

extent seem to be closely associated with latite intrusives south and east of the Bingham 

stock (Rubright and Hart, 1968; Moore, 1973a and 1973b). These bodies suggest that 

latitic melts became fluid-saturated and overpressured, and were released by explosive 

forces.

Extrusive, mostly latitic volcanic rocks overlie sediments of the Butterfield Peaks 

Formation mainly south and southeast of the Bingham district. Armstrong (1970) reported 

an age of 38.8 ± 0.9 Ma for andesite porphyry flows along the eastern range front north of 

the mouth of Bingham Canyon, but Warnaars and others (1978) questioned this age 

determination. Laharic deposits (or breccias) as much as 450 m to 610 m thick, composed 

of varieties of latite, make up a basal unit south of Bingham Canyon. These are 

interbedded with water-laid tuff, volcanic conglomerate, and crossbedded sandstone. The 

breccias are overlain by lenticular latitic flows, which may be as much as 250 m. thick. 

Rhyolite vitrophyre flows and flow breccias form sizable bodies in the Tickville Springs 

quadrangle. Moore (1973b) dated these rocks at 31.2 ±0.9 Ma.. The volcanic rocks are 

intruded by the Shaggy Peak rhyolite stock that was dated at 33.0 Ma. Patches of 

monolithologic latite tuff-breccias, the youngest volcanic rocks (30.7 ± 0.9 Ma), caps this 

series of flows (Moore, 1973b).

Middle Canyon-Soldier Creek areas The northwestern part of the Bingham nappe 

between Middle Canyon and Soldier Creek contains several dikes and plugs that cut 

sedimentary rocks of the Oquirrh Group (fig. 12). These were described mainly by Gilluly 

(1932), and by Tooker and Roberts, (1988 and 1992), with age dates by Moore (1973c), 

Warnaars and others (1978), and Moore and McKee (1983). A 3-4 m-thick latite porphyry 

dike, which intrudes the Butterfield Peaks Formation, crosses Middle Canyon southwest of 

the Bingham mining district, and is a continuation of the southwest-trending swarm of

71
dikes in the southwestern part of that district. It was dated at 37.8 ±1.1 Ma. A 3 m-thick 

quartz monzonite porphyry sill crops out in the Markham Peak Member of the Bingham 

Mine Formation at the range front south of Tooele, Utah; and a thinner sill of comparable 

composition intrudes the Butterfield Peaks Formation on the north slope of Settlement 

Canyon opposite the mouth of Dry Fork. The age of the Tooele sill was determined to be 

38.6 ±1.1 Ma., the age of the Settlement Canyon body is as yet unknown. The quartz 

monzonite stock and associated quartz monzonite porphyry, diorite, and diorite porphyry 

sills on the north side of Soldier Creek occur in the lower part of the Butterfield Peaks 

Formation and have not been dated. Diorite and diorite porphyry stocks, dikes, and plugs, 

which occur at the heads of the East Fork of Settlement Canyon and White Pine Canyon, 

also intrude the Butterfield Peaks Formation; no age has been determined for them.

Lion Hill and Porphyry Knob areas Faulted altered biotite granodiorite porphyry 

plugs and associated sill and dikes occur in and along the Long Trail Shale Member of the 

Great Blue Limestone on the eastern flank of the Ophir anticline (see fig. 12, and Gilluly, 

1932). The rocks were dated by Moore and McKee (1983) at 36.7 ± 0.5 Ma .

Ophir and Mercur mining district areas The Eagle Hill rhyolite porphyry, named 

from outcrops on Eagle Hill in the Mercur mining district (fig. 12), consists mainly of 

intermittently-exposed, irregular, sill-like intrusive bodies that occur mostly in the Great 

Blue Limestone and Humbug Formation. These intrusives have been mapped from the 

head of Sunshine Canyon, across Eagle Hill, astride the Ophir anticline at Mercur, Utah, to 

the mouth of Mercur Canyon, thence northward, generally parallel to the range front, as far 

as Silverado Canyon (Tooker 1992). A north-trending dike of rhyolite porphyry reappears 

in Ophir Canyon at Ophir, Utah cutting across the Bowman Limestone and Lynch 

Dolomite (Cambrian), the Fitchville Formation and Pinyon Peak Limestone, 

undifferentiated (Mississippian and Devonian), the Gardison Limestone (Mississippian)

72
(Tooker 1987). It then trends northward to Dry Canyon, where several discontinuous sills 

occur in Deseret Limestone (Mississippian) on the hangingwall of the Dry Canyon thrust. 

The intrusive is terminated in a stock or large plug on the north facing slopes of Bald 

Mountain in the upper member of the Great Blue Limestone. Eagle Hill rhyolite has been 

dated at Mercur by Moore (1973c) at 31.6 ± 0.9 Ma; the unit has not been dated at Ophir.

Thin lamprophyre dikes crop out for short distances on both the north and south 

sides of Ophir Canyon Gilluly, (1932), but they have not been dated. The 

complete story of intrusive and extrusive activity and related ore deposition in 

the nappe has yet to be revealed through additional, coordinated, more detailed 

geochemical, petrologic, and age-dating studies of rocks such as these within 

the Oquirrh Mountains.

Associated mineral resources

The geology and metallogeny of Bingham nappe ore districts are reported in detail 

elsewhere, and are only briefly summarized here. The Bingham nappe is host to the main 

disseminated, vein, and replacement base- and precious-metal ore deposits in the Oquirrh 

Mountains in the Bingham, Mercur, and Ophir mining districts. These deposits seem to be 

localized mainly in structurally disturbed porphyritic igneous and/or carbonate-rich sedimentary 

rocks near the lead edges and on the upper plates of thrust faults Tooker (1998). In most cases the 

ore deposits are at least spatially related to intrusive igneous rocks. References to more detailed 

descriptions of the deposits are given in the following statements.

The Bingham mining district The central zoned porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold ores 

are dispersed mostly along closely-spaced fractures in the Bingham monzonite porphyry stock and 

in associated dikes and sills (Peters and others, 1966; John, 1978; and Babcock and others, 1995). 

Surrounding these deposits are extensive vein, replacement, skarn, and disseminated lead, zinc, 

copper, silver, and gold deposits hosted by Oquirrh Group carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks that

73
include the Butterfield Peaks, and Bingham Mine Formations of Upper Pennsylvania age (Hunt, 

1957; looker and Roberts, 1970; Swensen, 1975a and 1975b; and looker, 1990). The ores occur 

as veins in faults and as replacements of the folded and faulted limestone horizons described by 

Rubright and Hart (1968), and Stacey and others (1984,1988). Close to the intrusives, the 

carbonate rocks have been metasomatized and copper-gold-rich skarns developed (Atkinson and 

Einaudi, 1978; Einaudi, 1983; and Cameron and Garmoe, 1983).

The Mercur mining district Disseminated gold, silver, and mercury ores occur as bedded 

and irregular replacements in limestone and as fissure veins in the "Mercur beds" of Kornze 

(1984a, b), Kornze and others (1985), Faddies and Kornze (1985), Guenther (1973), Klatt and 

Tafuri (1976), Tafuri (1987), Wicks (1987), and Kerr (1997). Near-surface oxidized ores grade 

into sulfide ores at depth (Jewell, 1984, and Jewell and Parry, 1984, 1988). These beds are 

mostly in the faulted upper part of the Upper Mississippian Silveropolis Limestone Member of the 

Great Blue Limestone (Gordon, Tooker and Dutro, 2000) in the "Mercur beds" as identified by 

Shrier (verbal comrnun., 1993) on the folded upper plate of the Manning thrust (Tooker, 1987 and 

1998). Reserves of disseminated gold ore were exhausted in 1997 and mining ceased (Kerr, 

1997).

An unresolved controversy about the origin of Mercur gold is based on the determination 

by Wilson and Parry (1995) of a Late Jurassic K/Ar age from illite-rich clays in limestones 

associated with the deposit. As in other Oquirrh Mountain mining districts, there seems to be a 

close spatial and structural association of ore minerals and Tertiary intrusives at Mercur, hence the 

previous assumption of a genetic connection (Morris and Tooker, 1996). However, the new older 

age implies that gold mineral formation here may have occurred in the hinterland before the Sevier 

thrust event, which produced the fault structures in which ore minerals commonly occur. Kerr 

(1997) affirms that the ores were formed after the intrusion of the associated rhyolite bodies. The 

final resolution of this problem must be left to future research that will be able to develop more 

critical data.

74
The Ophir mining district Ore minerals at Ophir were deposited as bedded replacements 

irregular replacements, pipelike and vein and fissure as lead, silver, copper, and zinc sulfides and 

oxides. Small amounts of tungsten, bismuth, and cadmium occur in the lower parts of the Ophir 

Hill mine (Rubright, 1978), which was one of the largest and most recent producers. Mining in 

the district ceased in 1972, but the ore zone was not bottomed according to Rubright (verbal 

commun., 1988); the main part of the district (Ophir Hill} was recently purchased by Silver Eagle 

Resources Ltd (Vancouver, B.C., Canada). The folded host sedimentary rocks are Lower 

Paleozoic carbonates on the upper plates of several branch thrusts at the apex of the Ophir anticline, 

where it crosses the Uinta trend and is bent northwestward (Tooker, 1998).

Production from the Bingham, Mercur, and Ophir districts A summary of the production 

is shown in Table 4. The production from the separate areas within the Ophir district are not 

specified and the pre-1902 data at Ophir are combined with those from the Stockton mining 

district.(from USGS and USBM data) 

TABLE 4, NEAR HERE.

Industrial minerals and construction materials These have also been mined within and 

bordering the Bingham nappe (Tripp, 1992). Limestone, used for flux in smelting of metallic 

ores, was produced from the Deseret Limestone in Mercur Canyon. Production data are 

unavailable. Production from extensive sand and gravel deposits that occur along the margins of 

the range and on the extensive pediments also is not known. The well-known Stockton bar and 

spit deposits of sand and gravel immediately west of Stockton were accumulated by the Lake 

Bonneville currents along the west side of the range, which modified the extensive older 

unconsolidated Harkers Fanglomerate deposits along the margin of the range.

Rogers Canyon Nappe

The folded and faulted Rogers Canyon nappe, which moved south-southeastward on the 

North Oquirrh thrust fault to its foreland site over the Uinta-trend buttress, crops out in the 

northern one-third of the Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 13). Its nearly 4,000 m-thick stratigraphic

75
section was divided into five formations (Tooker and Roberts, 1970). The general lithologic 

characteristics, fossils, and age correlations and map distributions of these formational units were 

based on the measured sections in type localities at the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains by 

Gordon and Duncan (1970), and Tooker and Roberts (1970, 1971a, 1971b, and 1971c). Table 5 

provides a summary of these data . The north end of the Oquirrh Mountains is bordered by the 

Great Salt Lake, and by reverse or thrust faults in the Black Rock fault zone. The western margin 

of the range lies along intersecting northwest- and northeast-trending normal faults. A pediment 

beyond the western range front is terminated by strong, deep-reaching normal faults that defined 

the easternmost margin of the Tooele graben of Cook and others (1966). The southern border of 

the nappe is along the North Oquirrh thrust, which is best exposed in Bates Canyon. East of the 

crest of the range, the thrust is concealed by downdrop of the nappe along the steep-dipping 

Nelson Peak and Tooele northwest- and northeast-trending faults. The eastern margin of the 

nappe, which has been tilted to the east, is concealed by Quaternary alluvial deposits, the thick fan 

of the Markers Fanglomerate, and Tertiary volcanic units. 

FIGURE 13 AND TABLE 5, NEAR HERE.

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks

The succession of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the Rogers Canyon nappe are distinctive 

in themselves, but they also share some correlative lithologic and age characteristics with those in 

the Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains as well as those comprising nappes in some of the 

adjoining ranges. The general lithologic similarities of sedimentary rocks in the Bingham and 

Rogers Canyon nappes hindered earlier recognition of them as separate rock sequences in the 

Oquirrh Mountains. Detailed descriptions of the formational units in the Rogers Canyon nappe are 

based on measured sections by Tooker and Roberts (1970). The Upper Mississippian Green 

Ravine Formation at the base is overlain conformably by the Oquirrh Group, composed of the 

Lake Point Limestone, and Erda and Kessler Canyon Formations, ranging in age from Upper

76
Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian to Upper Pennsylvanian. The section is capped by the 

basal Grandeur Member of the Lower Permian Park City Formation.

Lower Paleozoic Green Ravine Formation The Green Ravine Formation, 432+ m thick, 

is composed of abundantly fossiliferous interbedded thin-bedded limestone and calcareous shale 

overlain by more massive bedded cherty and fossiliferous limestone. The base of the Green 

Ravine Formation is concealed by alluvium and range-front faults (Tooker and Roberts, 1970).

The Upper Mississippian-Lower Pennsylvanian stratigraphic transition in the Rogers 

Canyon nappe differs from that in the Bingham nappe. A formational unit resembling Manning 

Canyon Shale, which overlies the Great Blue Limestone and encloses the PennsylvanianMississippian boundary prominently throughout the Bingham nappe, is not present in the northern 

Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 4). That part of the Rogers Canyon stratigraphic section is a limestone 

facies and is included in the base of the Lake Point Limestone. The Green Ravine Formation was 

correlated faunally with the upper part of the Mercur limestone member of the Great Blue 

Limestone in the Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains and with fauna! and stratigraphic 

characteristics of the Doughnut Formation in the Mount Raymond nappe sequence in the Wasatch 

Mountains ( Crittenden, 1959; Tooker and Roberts, 1962; and Gordon, Tooker and Dutro, 2000). 

Although the lower part of the Green Ravine Formation is correlated lithologically with one or 

more of the interbedded shale and limestone strata of the upper part of the Mercur Member of the 

Great Blue Limestone, the upper part of the Green Ravine Formation does not contain prominent 

interbedded shales and is not transitional into a thick shale unit, such as the Manning Canyon 

Shale in the Bingham nappe (Gordon and Duncan, 1970; and Gordon, Tooker, and Dutro, 2000). 

As noted earlier, the Green Ravine is conformable with a crossbedded sandy limestone and 

limestone facies that resembles the similar smaller-scale transition from Great Blue Limestone to 

Doughnut Formation in the Mount Raymond nappe. Because the lithologies of the Mississippianage rocks in the Rogers Canyon nappe are not generally similar to those in the Great Blue 

Limestone and its overlying Manning Canyon Shale in their type sections in the Bingham nappe,

77
the name Green Ravine Formation was retained for these age-correlative rocks in the northern 

Oquirrh Mountains.

Oquirrh Group (Upper Paleozoic) formations The lithology and fossil collections of 

Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks, which include the Lake Point Limestone, the Erda, and Kessler 

Canyon Formations, summarized below, were described in more detail by Tooker and Roberts 

(1970, fig.3) and Gordon and Duncan (1970). The summary map (fig. 1), does not show the 

individual Oquirrh Group formations; their distribution and structures in the Rogers Canyon nappe 

in the Mills Junction, Farnsworth Peak, Magna, and Bingham Canyon quadrangles werer detailed 

in the maps by Tooker and Roberts (1971a, 1971b, 1971c, and 1988) Figure 13 shows the 

distribution of the underlying conformable Greene Ravine Formation and the overlying 

disconformable Grandeur Member of the Park City Formation.

The Lake Point Limestone is 529 m thick and is a prominent thick light-gray unit at its 

type locality between Big Canyon and Rogers Canyon . The formation consists chiefly of 

interbedded thin- to medium-bedded limestone and massive cherty, fossiliferous, bioclastic, 

arenaceous, and thin argillaceous limestone and thin carbonaceous shale beds . In addition to the 

abundant brachiopod, foraminifera, coral and bryozoan fauna , the conodonts reported by Davis 

and Webster (1987) and Davis and others (1994) demonstrate the presence of diverse platform 

elements and permits recognition of the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian (Chester-Morrow) and 

Morrowan/Atokan boundary.

The Erda Formation is characterized by a 1,255 m-thick banded sequence of cyclically 

repeated thick-bedded limestone, fossiliferous and argillaceous limestone, thin quartzite, and crossbedded calcareous sandstone and carbonaceous shale partings . Although less abundant than in the 

Lake Point Limestone, the mega-fossil assemblages demonstrate a Middle Pennsylvania (Des 

Moines) age. These rocks are the approximate age equivalents of the lower and middle parts of the 

Oquirrh Group in the thick Timpanogos nappe in the Wasatch Mountains and in the Bingham 

nappes in the Oquirrh and East Tintic Mountains (Tooker and Roberts, 1962).

78
The Kessler Canyon Formation , about 1,362 m thick, consists predominantly of 

interbedded massive orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite, and cherty limestone, which becomes 

interbedded ferruginous dolomite, dolomitic sandstone, dolomite, and thin fusulinid chert layers in 

the upper part. The formation is sparsely fossiliferous throughout and contains highly-altered ironstained zones in its upper parts perhaps evidence of a weathered surfaces. There may be 

Missouri-age fusulinids in the basal part of the formation, but the upper part is of Virgil age 

(Gordon and Duncan, 1970).

These observations lead to other comparisons in considerations of lithologic characteristics 

in the Rogers Canyon and Wasatch Mountains' Mount Raymond and Bingham nappes. The 

Kessler Canyon Formation is, in part, age-correlative with the Markham Peak Member of the 

Bingham Mine Formation. Gordon and Duncan (1970) suggestedthat the absence of Missouri-age 

rocks in the Kessler Canyon Formation, which is in sharp contrast with their abundance in the 

Bingham Mine Formation, may indicate a period of non-deposition or uplift and erosion in the 

Sublette basin hinterland of the Rogers Canyon nappe, which Steele (1960) called the regional 

Middle Pennsylvanian unconformity in west-central and northwest Utah and eastern Nevada. 

Wolfcamp-age sediments are also missing in the Rogers Canyon nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains, 

and the Early Permian (Leonardian) Park City strata rest without angular unconformity on 

Virgil(?)-age beds. Comparable rocks are also missing in the Mount Raymond section (Baker and 

others, 1949; Crittenden, 1959; and as diagrammed in figure 4). These stratigraphic relations lend 

further support for the inference in this report that Pennsylvanian-Permian sedimentation along the 

miogeocline shelf varied from north to south across the Uinta trend in the Sublette and Oquirrh 

basins.

Grandeur Member of the Park City Formation (Permian) The Grandeur Member of the 

Permian Park City Formation is 232+ m thick and is composed of thin- to medium-bedded 

arenaceous limestone, dolomite, dolomitic limestone, and interbedded thin partings of shale, 

argillaceous and fossiliferous limestone, phosphorite, chert, orthoquartzite and calcareous

79
sandstone. The Tooker and Roberts (1970) measured section divides the member into a lower 

limestone, 66-m thick, a medial quartzite, dolomite, sandstone, shale, chert and phosphorite, 86-m 

thick, and an upper dolomite and quartzite 79-m thick. The member rests disconformably on the 

Kessler Canyon Formation , which Gordon and Duncan (1970) believed accounted for the 

absence of Wolfcamp- and part of the Leonard-age rocks. Mega fossils are abundant in the 

prominent white lower limestone and are of late Leonard (Early Permian) age. The top of the 

member is an erosion surface.

Structural features

The fold and fault structural regime in the Rogers Canyon nappe is primarily the result of 

its emplacement from the northwest on the North Oquirrh thrust (fig. 3), and subsequent 

adjustments along Basin and Range extensional normal faults (Roberts and Tooker, 1961). The 

prominent main folds are restricted to the western half of the nappe and trend predominantly eastnortheast- to northeast. Their flanks contain numerous secondary folds. A major fault, the 

Garfield, effectively drops the eastern half of the nappe. Closer-spaced more symmetrical folds in 

the eastern part of the nappe, which are composed of younger beds of the Kessler Canyon 

Formation, trend northeast and are nearly equal to each other in amplitude. A regional map 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1998) showed a prominent northwest trend for steep-dipping normal (in part 

tear?) faults in this eastern structural block. This suggests the possibility that the eastern half of the 

nappe lies on an imbricate thrust above the North Oquirrh sole thrust that responded differently to 

stress than the thicker western half of the nappe on the North Oquirrh thrust. Imbricate thrusts also 

occur both at the north end of the range (perhaps, in part, as reverse faults) as well as in the 

southern part of the nappe, which over-rode the Uinta-trend basement and Bingham-nappe 

structures.

Folds Fold patterns in the nappe, which are different in the western and eastern halves of 

the range, are separated by the north-trending, steeply east-dipping extended Garfield fault. The

80
Mills Junction syncline, Kessler anticline, and Farnsworth (formerly Coon) syncline, and the 

Bates Canyon anticline, considered to be main folds, are well exposed on the western flank of the 

range as broad, high-amplitude, and southeast-leaning asymmetrical structures that trend to the 

northeast (Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ic). These rocks are composed of Upper Mississippian and 

Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian sedimentary strata (Tooker and Roberts, 197Ib). The less 

steeply-dipping north flanks of the main folds contain numerous secondary folds. A small folded 

imbrication in the upper plate of the North Oquirrh thrust at the mouth of Rogers Canyon, the 

Lake Point thrust, consists of tight, isoclinal, low-amplitude, northeast-trending folds of the 

Middle Pennsylvanian Erda Formation, which are overturned to the southeast. The Lake Point 

thrust is overlain by the older Green Ravine Formation and Lake Point Limestone. The upper plate 

of the Black Rock thrust (or reverse fault(?) along the northern border of the nappe contains 

tightly-folded secondary close-spaced, low-amplitude, asymmetrical, and locally overturned folds 

composed of Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian strata (Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ib). The Lake 

Point Limestone was thrust over Erda Formation, and in turn, is overlapped by flat-lying 

Quaternary (Lake Bonneville and alluvium) deposits along the northern and western sides of the 

range.

The pattern of folds in the eastern half of the nappe is different there are no prominent 

main folds. Instead, the folds are more closely, spaced, symmetrical and open, northeast-trending, 

and generally low-amplitude structures whose axes plunge gently to the northeast. The rocks 

include Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian strata noted above (Tooker and Roberts, 

197Ib). These strata are overlapped by generally flat-lying Tertiary conglomerate that is overlain, 

in turn, by Tertiary volcanic rocks. Quaternary sedimentary rock units that include the Harkers 

Fanglomerate and Quaternary alluvial deposits overlap the consolidated formational units along the 

eastern border of the range.

Faults The distribution of faults in sedimentary rocks in the Rogers Canyon nappe (fig. 

21) is the result of deformation by the emplacement of the North Oquirrh thrust fault and its upper

81
plate imbricate thrusts, and the associated steep-dipping and tensional-tear faults, and later normal 

Basin and Range extensional faults. The sole North Oquirrh thrust crops out in Bates Canyon, on 

the west side of the range, and also in a structural block that includes Barneys Peak. The thrust is 

a shallow north-dipping fault at the mouth of Bates Canyon, and apparently also along the western 

front of the range where it is inferred to underlie the Adobe Rock pediment between Lake Point and 

the mouth of Bates Canyon. However, the northern dip of the thrust appears to steepen upward as 

it is traced southeastward up Bates Canyon toward Nelson Peak. The North Oquirrh thrust is not 

exposed east of the Nelson Peak fault. Where exposed northwest of Barneys Peak in the downdropped block west of the Nelson Peak fault, the dip of the thrust is not clear, but seems to have a 

low dip to the south. Here one may assume that the thrust has ramped across the earlier 

accumulated Pass Canyon and Bingham nappes overlying the Uinta-trend structure. The same 

assumption may be made for the origin of several imbricate thrusts that crop out east of the Nelson 

Peak fault and have relatively small displacement within the Erda Formation. These imbrications 

seem to break out and form where the thrust crosses the Uinta trend.

The North Oquirrh thrust thus seems to ramp up across the stratigraphic section in its 

southward movement. In Bates Canyon the Lake Point Limestone (Lower Pennsylvanian) lies on 

the thrust surface with little or no deformation or alteration. On the crest of the range west of 

Nelson Peak, the fault rides on the Erda Formation. The Lake Point Limestone also occurs above 

the thrust in the klippen on the ridge on the south side of Bates Canyon. Where exposed northwest 

of Barneys Peak, the Erda Formation (Middle Pennsylvanian) overlies the thrust. The Nelson 

Peak and Tooele faults drop the nappe and conceal the North Oquirrh thrust between these 

exposures and also form the boundary between the adjoining Pass Canyon and Rogers Canyon 

nappes. On the eastern border of the range, immediately north of the mouth of Barneys Canyon, a 

small exposure of a south-dipping easternmost outcrop of the Rogers Canyon nappe, possibly on 

the upper plate of the North Oquirrh thrust or on an imbricate thrust in the nappe, underlies a sliver 

of the Grandeur Member, which is preserved in a klippen bloc.

82
The steep, north-dipping Black Rock and Pony Express thrusts, which may have 

developed somewhat later than the North Oquirrh thrust, are imbricate fault structures that form 

over-steepened to overturned folds in the upper plate at the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains. 

The Lake Point thrust, along the range front at the mouth of Rogers Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 

1971c), is also believed to be a folded lower imbrication above the North Oquirrh thrust.

Normal faults are predominantly northwest-trending, steep-dipping structures with less 

prominent conjugate northeast-trending steep faults. None of these faults markedly offset the 

sedimentary rocks, and are thought to have developed, in part, as tensional and later tear breaks 

during the folding of the nappe. Some may have been reactivated as Basin and Range normal 

faults. The eastern part of the range seems to have been downdropped along the Garfield fault, 

which now is interpreted to be a combination of intersecting tear- and northeast-trending normal 

faults that drop the eastern younger sedimentary section down on the east.

The western range front is shaped by intersecting northeast-and northwest-trending normal 

faults. The Adobe Rock pediment at Lake Point resulted from fault blocks that are still visible 

above the unconsolidated sediments of Tooele Valley. The blocks to the west in the valley have 

been dropped variable distances that were estimated as much as 1.5 km below the surface, 

forming the Tooele graben (Cook, and others, 1966; and Tooker and Roberts, 197la). The nappe 

fault boundaries on the eastern side of the range are not as well revealed owing to the eastward tilt 

of the range and consequent overlap of Quaternary sediments.

Proposed formation of Rogers Canyon nappe structures Stratigraphic and structural 

features exposed in the eastern and western parts of the Rogers Canyon nappe support the 

following explanation for the formation of the contrasting Stratigraphic and structural elements. 

First, there is a striking difference in the Stratigraphic character between the Lower and Middle 

Pennsylvanian rocks exposures on the western side of the range and the Upper PennsylvanianLower Permian rocks on the east side. The sedimentary rock succession on the west side of the 

range includes a high proportion of competent interbedded thick orthoquartzite, calcareous

83
quartzite, and limestone beds of the Lake Point Limestone, the Erda Formation, and the lower part 

of the Kessler Canyon Formation. Their competent thick sedimentary rock lithology resulted in 

formation of main-type folds with subsidiary small overprinted secondary folds. The stratigraphic 

sequence of the upper part of the Kessler Canyon Formation and Grandeur Member strata on the 

east side are composed of a high proportion of thin- to medium-bedded ferruginous sandstone, 

dolomite, and shaly limestone units. These rocks are generally compositionally less competent, 

forming more evenly distributed close-spaced, low-amplitude folds. These seem to have been 

formed on the upper plate of an unexposed imbricate thrust.

The map distribution of formational units suggests that the folding in the western and 

eastern was accomplished in separately detached structural blocks. The west-side main folds were 

formed as the west side moved on the North Oquirrh thrust onto the Uinta trend. The thrust began 

to cut upwards across beds in the Lake Point Limestone and Erda Formation. Imbricate thrusts in 

the Erda were formed as the nappe crossed the Uinta trend buttress. The Lake Point thrust is a 

folded lower imbrication that crops out on the western side of the Rogers Canyon nappe at the 

range front.

East-side folds developed in an upper imbricate plate separated from the west-side plate. 

The southern lead edge of the imbricate thrust is inferred to be on the ridge south of Markers 

Canyon, where the thrust plane is marked by a thick silicated quartzite breccia formed against the 

Uinta trend. The composite Garfield fault became the break during Basin and Range extension 

along which the east side was dropped down to its present position. Erosion completed the 

present topography.

The Black Rock imbricate thrust zone, possibly the last gasp in the North Oquirrh thrust 

system, ramped the Lower Pennsylvanian Lake Point and Erda Formations along the northern 

range front to overlap both the west- and east-sides of the nappe.

84
Location and types of igneous rocks

The only igneous rocks present in the nappe occur closer to the southern fault 

border with the Pass Canyon nappe. These are believed to be extensions similar to 

intrusions originating in the underlying Pass Canyon nappe. A thin (up to 1.2 m thick) 

flow composed of andesite breccia, apparently conformably overlies Tertiary conglomerate 

capping the low ridge west of Mahogany Hill in the southeastern corner of the Farnsworth 

Peak (Garfield) quadrangle (Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ib). This rock has not been dated. 

Tertiary flows of latite and latite breccia crop out along the southeastern range front 

(Swensen, 1975a and 1975b), where they unconformably overlap the sedimentary rocks of 

the nappe.

Associated mineral resources

The Rogers Canyon nappe is not mineralized, however, the Barneys Canyon disseminated 

gold mine (Skillings, 1988) is located mainly in the Pass Canyon nappe (Babcock and others, 

1995) near its contact with the Rogers Canyon nappe. Hydrothermal solutions penetrated and 

altered a sliver of Grandeur Member limestone in the North Oquirrh thrust fault that overlies the 

Flood Canyon unit near the mouth of Barneys Canyon. The Grandeur Member crops out 

elsewhere in the Farnsworth Peak and Magna quadrangles (Tooker and Roberts, 197 Ib, 197 Ic) 

and has been prospected with little apparent success.

Industrial mineral and construction materials (Tripp and others, 1989; and Tripp, 1992) 

were produced from or peripheral to the Rogers Canyon nappe. While some of these materials are 

not directly derived from the nappe, they are indirectly the result of its erosion and concentration by 

evaporation of Great Salt Lake. Gravel deposits formed about the margins of the Oquirrh 

Mountains by Pleistocene Lake Bonneville have been mined extensively in the area for road metal 

and for construction of mine facilities and evaporators A byproduct of smelting activity at the 

north end of the range is crushed smelter slag used in construction of highways, as railroad 

ballast, and the Great Salt Lake containment dikes . Oolitic carbonate sands that occur along the

85
southern shores of Great Salt Lake have been mined for use as a flux in the adjoining Kennecott 

refinery. Halite has been recovered from the evaporation of Great Salt Lake brines. Data on the 

production of most of these materials are unavailable.

South Mountain Nappe

The South Mountain nappe is located on South Mountain and in the adjoining area east of 

Stockton, Utah, in the west-central part of the Oquirrh Mountains and includes the Stockton 

mining district (Tooker and Roberts, 1992; and fig. 14). The nappe is the upper plate of the sole 

Stockton thrust fault, recognized initially because of its overall stratigraphic and structural 

discordance with those geologic features in the adjoining Bingham nappe. North of South 

Mountain, the northern boundary of the nappe is along the TAD thrust fault concealed beneath 

Quaternary alluvial deposits. The South Mountain nappe is overlapped on the west by the Tintic 

Valley thrust fault whose upper plate contains the Stansbury Mountains (Tooker, 1983). The 

eastern boundary of the nappe is the Soldier tear fault at the mouth of Soldier Creek. Quaternary 

alluvial deposits overlap the nappe on the south. 

FIGURE 14, NEAR HERE

The sedimentary rocks in the nappe include three informally-named formational units of the 

Oquirrh Group: the South Peak, Salvation, and Rush Lake units of Tooker and Roberts (1988). 

Table 6. Although there is a general gross similarity in the types of rocks comprising the Oquirrh 

Group in the South Mountain and Bingham nappes, the lithologic character of South Mountain 

sedimentary rocks is sufficiently different to recognize that it is a separate structural unit from the 

Bingham nappe. 

TABLE 6, NEAR HERE.

The patterns of folded and faulted sedimentary rocks in the South Mountain nappe contrast 

markedly with those in the Bingham nappe. The discordance in fold directions and their styles and 

magnitudes is most apparent. Gilluly (1932) correlated the major fold on South Mountain with the 

westward extension of the Ophir anticline. More detailed mapping there and in the Stockton

86
mining district indicated that they were not related stratigraphically and structurally (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1992). Figure 14 also shows that the sole Stockton thrust of the South Mountain nappe 

in the Oquirrh Mountains and the TAD3 thrust north of South Mountain are most probably separate 

faults separated by an inferred Rush Valley fault of at least moderate offset. The inference is that 

the TAD thrust is an imbrication above the Stockton thrust. The Rush Valley fault zone is the 

locale of warm springs at the Morgan Ranch, on the southwest, and along the margins of Rush 

Lake southwest of Stockton, Utah.

Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks

While there is structural discontinuity across the Rush Valley fault, the sedimentary rocks 

on both sides are readily correlated in age, and to an extent they also share characteristic 

formational Stratigraphic features in their Upper Paleozoic Oquirrh Group formational units and 

overlapping unconsolidated sediments of Quaternary age. The type localities and measured 

sections of the Oquirrh Group formational units in the South Mountain nappe are on South 

Mountain (Tooker and Roberts, 1992), and details of their lithology are shown in app. 2. The 

Rush Lake and Salvation units also crop out in the Stockton mining district. Unit designations are 

retained for rocks in the South Mountain nappe pending more detailed mapping and Stratigraphic 

and faunal information. The units are not areally extensive, and possibly do not warrant more than 

unit designation accorded here. They were included previously with rocks of the Bingham nappe 

(Welsh and James, 1961), but such designation does not recognize their separate distinctive 

Stratigraphic and structural characteristics.

Rush Lake unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) The type locality of the unit on South 

Mountain consists of nearly 1,352 m of interbedded limestones, quartzites, and local shale 

intervals of Middle Pennsylvanian age The lowest part of the Stratigraphic section, where

3 TAD is the acronym for Tooele Army Depot, which includes most of the area 

in Tooele Valley north of South Mountain.

87
measured, is covered by Quaternary sand and gravel deposits on the shore of Rush Lake. Only the 

upper part of the unit is exposed in the Stockton mining district (app. 2-C; and Tooker and 

Roberts, 1992), thus its total thickness there is unknown. Limestone predominates and is 

generally medium-bedded, medium-gray, with local light-gray, thin-bedded, and fissile shale 

partings; some beds are also sandy, silty, or bio-clastic and crossbedded, locally argillaceous, and 

some contain black chert nodules and layers. Buff- or tan-colored quartzite beds contain thin 

limestone partings, are locally crossbedded, and weather with pitted surface rinds. Local 

interbedded punky ferruginous layers contain worm trails The measured section by Tooker and 

Roberts (1992) identified the location of beds containing a sparse coral, bryozoan, and fusulinid 

fauna. The unit is age-correlative with the upper part of the Butterfield Peaks Formation (R.C. 

Douglass, written commun., 1962; and Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written cornmun. 1966); 

however, the thick sequence of cyclic repetitions of limestones quartzite, sandstone, and shale, 

which are characteristic of the neighboring Butterfield Peaks Formation, are absent. The clean, 

rounded sand grains in well-sorted clastic rock materials are inferred to be derived mainly from a 

craton source.

Salvation unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) Named for exposures generally north of 

Ben Harrison Gulch near the Salvation mine in the Stockton mining district, the type (measured) 

locality is on adjoining South Mountain (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The unit consists of 823 m 

of interbedded calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, and sandy, argillaceous, fossiliferous, and 

dense crystalline limestone (app. 2-B; and Tooker and Roberts, 1992). Medium-bedded quartzite 

predominates over thin-bedded limestone and shale partings. The rocks are age-correlative with 

the Late Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Group Clipper Ridge Member of the Bingham Mine Formation 

(Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., and R.C. Douglass, written commun., 1962). The main distinction 

between the Bingham and South Mountain nappes is the absence of thick limestone marker beds in 

the Salvation unit comparable with those in the Jordan and Commercial marker beds at the base of

88
the Clipper Ridge Member and the overlying massive orthoquartzite beds (Tooker and Roberts, 

1970).

South Peak Unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) The South Peak unit is 1,903 m thick 

where exposed along the crest of the western part of South Mountain and is named for the peak 

labelled South in the high southwestern part of the range. The lower 678 m thick section (beds 1- 

9, appendix 4-A, Tooker and Roberts, 1992) contains interbedded light gray-tan, medium-beddedto-massive calcareous quartzite that contain fusulinid molds, light-gray, silica-cemented 

orthoquartzite, reddish-brown-weathering ferruginous sandstone with worm trails, and thin (0.6-6 

m thick) dark gray, fine-grained to sandy limestone with sandstone partings. No well-preserved 

fossils were collected, although fragments and molds were relatively abundant. The upper 

1,225 m. (beds 10-22, app. 2-A; and Tooker and Roberts, 1992) of the South Peak unit consists 

of interbedded tan to buff and light gray, weathering light brown, commonly finely-banded 

calcareous quartzite, and interbedded light-gray orthoquartzite, reddish-brown weathering 

ferruginous sandstone containing worm trails, thin-bedded chert with fusulinid molds, and, less 

commonly, thin-bedded dark-gray sandy limestone. Although most fossils are poorly preserved, 

ftisulinid fossil collections contain detrital fragments of bryozoa and fusulinids. The age suggested 

is Early Permian, late Wolfcamp equivalent. (R.C. Douglass, written cornmun., 1963).

Quaternary deposits. Unconsolidated sediments in the vicinity of the South Mountain 

nappe comprise the Markers Fanglomerate and Quaternary alluvium, which also includes 

Pleistocene clastic sand and gravel deposits formed along the shores of Lake Bonneville. The 

Markers Fanglomerate deposits occur on both sides of the Oquirrh Mountains, and are thickest 

where they overlie the trace of the Uinta trend. Apparently it was being uplifted during the 

Quaternary, producing extensive deposits of coarse gravels. These were redistributed by currents 

along the shores of Lake Bonneville. The classic bar and spit deposit at Stockton, described by

89
Gilbert (1886), and numerous smaller sand and gravel deposits in Tooele Valley formed in 

successively lower lake levels in the adjoining Tooele Quadrangle are described by Tooker (1980).

Regional correlations of formational units The ages of sedimentary rocks on the north 

flank of the Ophir anticline in the Bingham nappe, which immediately adjoin those in the South 

Mountains nappe, are dissimilar. The adjoining Bingham nappe rocks are also structurally 

discordant. These include Mississippian Great Blue Limestone, Mississippian-Pennsylvanian 

Manning Canyon Shale, and Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian West Canyon Limestone and lower 

Butterfield Peaks Formation in the Oquirrh Group. The adjacent rocks in the South Mountain 

nappe include only the upper part of the Middle Pennsylvanian Rush Lake and the lower part of the 

Upper-Pennsylvanian Salvation units.

Rocks of the Salvation and Rush Lake units are roughly equivalent in age and of generally 

comparable but thinner lithologies with those in the upper part of the Butterfield Peaks Formation, 

and the Clipper Ridge and the lower part of the Markham Peak Members of the Bingham Mine 

Formation in the Bingham nappe (Tooker, 1992). The lower part of South Peak strata are 

probably correlative with the upper Markham Peak Member of the Bingham Mine Formation 

(Missouri-Virgil age) in the Oquirrh Mountains. Sedimentary rocks of Wolfcamp age in the upper 

part of the South Peak unit are not found in the Oquirrh Mountain's Bingham nappe. The South 

Peak unit is also probably lithologically correlative with unnamed sedimentary rock units of that 

age in the Timpanogos nappe in the Wasatch Mountains (Baker and Crittenden, 1961; Tooker and 

Roberts, 1962; and fig. 4, this report). The lithology of rocks in the South Mountain nappe and 

Missouri-, Virgil-, and Wolfcamp-age sedimentary rocks in the southernmost part of the Bingham 

nappe at Tintic also differ. The Furner Valley Limestone at Tintic is correlated with the 

Pennsylvanian-age arenaceous Bingham Mine Formation in the Bingham nappe and parts of the 

Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian South Peak and Salvation units in the South Mountain 

nappe. The Furner Valley consists of 1595 m, mainly limestone section that is readily 

distinguishable from its underlying more arenaceous Butterfield Peaks Formation (Morris and

90
others, 1977). At Tintic, the Furner Valley Limestone is overlain by the Diamond Creek 

Sandstone, which probably is correlative with the upper part of the South Peak unit of looker and 

Roberts (1988).

Comparison of age-correlative parts of the stratigraphic columns for the Bingham and 

South Mountain nappes (fig. 15; looker and Roberts, 1992) also demonstrate significant 

differences in the character and thickness of the sedimentary rock lithologies in the Bingham and 

Stockton nappes. Ihe Jordan and Commercial marker beds in the base of the Clipper Ridge 

Member of the Bingham Mine Formation, which is the main host horizon of replacement base 

metal ore bodies at Bingham, cross the Oquirrh Mountains from the Bingham mining district to the 

range front south of the mouth of Middle Canyon, east of looele, with almost no thinning of these 

units. Ihey are cut off by Basin and Range normal range-front faults (looker, 1980; and looker 

and Roberts, 1988). In the Southport Gulch area of the Stockton mining district, just across the 

Stockton thrust, and only a few miles to the southwest of the mouth of Middle Canyon at looele, 

correlative rocks are considerably thinned and their lithology is similar but not truly comparable 

with those in the Bingham nappe (looker and Roberts, 1992). 

FIGURE 15, NEAR HERE.

Ihere remains a possibility that the strata of the South Mountain nappe are more closely 

related to the sedimentary rock facies found in the west-central part of the Bingham nappe than 

suggested here; and, in fact, this plate may be a large overlapping imbrication that includes clastic 

Upper Pennsylvanian (Wolfcampian) strata that were eroded from the Bingham nappe in the 

Oquirrh Mountains, assuming that they were deposited there originally. Differences in the 

thickness and composition of age-correlative units may represent local facies changes in 

miogeoclinal sediments observed southwestward in the Bingham nappe away from the uplifted 

area along the Uinta trend. Ihis relationship was suggested for other reasons by Welsh and 

James, (1961).

91
Structural features

The South Mountain nappe comprises two areas of distinctive fold and fault structures on 

the upper plates of the Stockton and TAD thrusts that are separated from one another by the Rush 

Valley tear fault (fig. 14). The eastern border of the nappe with the Bingham nappe is along the 

Soldier tear fault, and although concealed by unconsolidated Quaternary deposits, the western part 

of the South Mountain nappe is terminated by the east-directed, north-south trending, later Tintic 

Valley thrust.

Folds Fold patterns in the eastern and western parts of the nappe, as shown in figure 14 

differ from each other and from those in the adjoining Bingham and Stansbury nappes. The 

eastern part of the nappe, lying between the Soldier and Rush Valley tear faults, is the thinned, low 

amplitude folded, south-southwest dipping, north- northeast driven leading edge of the nappe that 

ramped onto the Uinta trend and earlier docked Bingham nappe. Close-spaced, bent, secondary 

folds produced in the Stockton thrust in the Stockton mining district area are of small amplitude, 

asymmetrical to overturned locally, and aligned in an east-northeast-to west-northwest -trending 

arc. The folds are segmented by tensional steep-dipping north-northeast trending normal faults, 

which in some areas are filled by porphyry dikes. The sedimentary rocks comprising the folds 

include Oquirrh Group strata in the upper part of the Rush Valley and the lower part of the 

Salvation units of Tooker and Roberts (1992).

In contrast, the major fold structure exposed in the western part of the nappe on South 

Mountain defines a single high-amplitude main fold, the South Mountain anticline (fig. 14) that 

also moved generally north-northeast. Here the upper plate of the nappe overlies the TAD thrust, 

believed to be an imbrication in the South Mountain nappe that is composed of a competent, thick 

stratigraphic body of medium-to-thick-bedded sedimentary rocks of the Rush Lake, Salvation, and 

South Peak units (Tooker and Roberts, 1992). The fold is asymmetrical, locally overturned to the 

north, and lies in a northwest- to west-northwest-trending more-open arc than those that occur in 

the Stockton district. The fold plunges westward beneath the Tintic Valley thrust. Before the

92
Sevier thrust belt was recognized, Gilluly (1932) considered that this fold was a continuation of the 

Ophir anticline, which it seemed to extend. However, the Ophir anticline plunges beneath 

overlying imbricate thrusts in the Bingham nappe along its western border (Tooker and Roberts, 

1992), and is cut off by the Soldier tear fault. The folds across the tear fault in the South 

Mountain nappe are of distinctly different types and are directionally discordant. The folds in the 

Stansbury nappe on the upper plate of the Tintic Valley thrust, which overlaps the South Mountain 

nappe from the west, are nearly north-south trending.

Why the geometry of folds in the nappe differ on opposite sides of the Rush Valley fault 

can only be inferred. One reason for applying individual names for the Stockton and TAD thrusts 

is to indicate that although there seems to be only a moderate amount of stratigraphic displacement 

along the Rush Valley tear fault, there is a more fundamental difference in the formation of their 

folds. Folds on the upper plate of the Stockton thrust are characteristic of those developed in a 

thinned-plate wedge that laps onto a barrier, in this case the uplifted(?) Bingham nappe that itself 

overlies the Uinta trend basement structure. The main South Mountain anticline on South 

Mountain may best be explained as having formed farther southwest as a thicker, and therefore 

more competent upper plate of an imbricate (TAD) thrust within the South Mountain nappe. It 

overran the thinner lead wedge of the Stockton thrust, as it also crunched against the Uinta trend 

foreland barrier.

Faults The principal faults in the nappe are sole and imbricate thrusts, tear, and normal 

faults. The sole fault of the South Mountain nappe, the Stockton thrust, exposed north of the 

Stockton mining district, apparently is a moderate- to shallow, south-dipping structure. The 

amount of northeastward transport on the Stockton thrust is not known, but does not seem to be 

of the same magnitude as that on the Midas thrust. Several branch or imbricate thrust faults having 

much less throw occur in the upper plate in the Stockton mining district. The TAD thrust north of 

South Mountain is inferred to be an imbrication above the sole thrust in the western half of the 

South Mountain nappe. It probably was dropped down along what had been the Rush Lake tear

93
fault during the later Basin and Range extensional structural deformation. The arcuate trend of the 

anticline may be due, in part, to drag along the Rush Valley tear fault, and the overturn at the west 

end ascribed to drag along the TAD thrust fault against the Uinta trend. The western part of the 

nappe is less broken by steep-dipping tensional faults normal to the folds direction, but few if any 

tear faults offset the folded formations.. The structural and stratigraphic discontinuity between 

South Mountain and the Stansbury Mountains is best explained by the concealed Tintic Valley 

thrust (Tooker, 1983; and Morris, 1983). Contrasting Paleozoic stratigraphic sequences (Rigby, 

1958; and Taylor 1991) are juxtaposed by the Tintic Valley fault, which has comparable regional 

significance in the Tintic region.

The nearly-vertical Rush Valley tear fault, whose western side apparently moved an 

unknown distance farther north-northeast than the eastern side, separates the South Mountain 

nappe into two parts. The Rush Valley tear fault does not crop out and can only be inferred from 

several lines of evidence. Most obvious is the striking difference in the structure of folded rocks 

on both sides of the fault (fig. 14). The presence of several warm springs along its trend from 

Morgan Ranch to the shores of Rush Lake is also permissive evidence of the existence of this 

unexposed fault. The source of heat sustaining these hotsprings is believed to be related to young 

basaltic or bi-modal volcanic systems, similar to those elsewhere in central Utah (H.T. Morris, 

verbal communication, 1997), that remain at depth along the Uinta-trend and related to earlier 

intrusives and hydrothermal ores in the Stockton mining district.

The eastern side of the South Mountain nappe adjoins the Bingham nappe along the Soldier 

tear fault. Outcrops of the Soldier tear fault on the eastern boundary of the nappe juxtapose 

contrasting stratigraphic and structural terranes. The southwestward extension of the fault is 

concealed beneath thick deposits of the Markers Fanglomerate and younger Quaternary alluvium.

Normal faults, which were largely developed originally as tensional structures formed 

during the folding of the nappe, may have generated additional normal but small displacements 

during Basin and Range extension. These are steep-dipping, north-trending and commonly 

contain porphyritic dike rocks in the Stockton mining district. These faults also were conduits for

94
the movement of hydrothermal sulfide solutions that formed veins and altered and replaced 

adjoining favorable carbonate sedimentary host rocks (Tooker, 1998). The amount of 

displacement on these normal faults is generally small. Some of the northeast-trending normal 

faults developed as extensions into the Bingham nappe and represent later Basin and Range 

movement along those structures. The structure of the Oquirrh Mountains range front is defined 

by numerous normal extensional faults, which locally also displace the Quaternary gravels. Older 

Marker Fanglomerate deposits at the mouths of the main drainages are also truncated by these 

faults.

Location and types of igneous rocks

The main types of igneous rocks in the South Mountain nappe originally described 

by Gilluly (1932) and later by Moore and McKee (1983) are intrusive facies of monzonitic 

porphyry that occur as small plugs, irregular dike-like bodies, and sills in the Stockton 

mining district and basalt dikes on South Mountain. Their ages are in the range of 

38-39 My (Moore and McKee, 1983). Extrusive volcanic rocks occur locally along the 

trace of the TAD thrust.

Numerous dikes, sills, and small stocks of quartz monzonite porphyry, and related 

monzonite porphyry, diorite porphyry, and quartz-diorite porphyry phases occur in and 

adjacent to the Stockton mining district (Gilluly, 1932). The dikes fill north-trending, 

nearly-vertical tension fractures. The composition of the largest stock, locally known as 

the "Raddatz" porphyry, resembles that of a nearby thick sill near Tooele in the Bingham 

nappe (Gilluly, 1932; and Tooker, 1980). A smaller fine-grained monzonite porphyry 

stock near the Calumet mine is dated at 38.0 ±1.1 Ma by Moore (1973a). A number of 

porphyry sills occur in the southeastern part of the nappe and in adjoining parts of the 

Bingham nappe on the north side of Soldier Creek. The nepheline basalt sill described by 

Gilluly (1932), one of four smaller sills exposed nearby on the crest of South Mountain, is 

dated at 40.1 Ma (Moore and McKee, 1983).

95
Hornblende latite tuff-breccia, which also includes water-laid tuffs and flows, is 

shown on Gilluly's map (1932) on the northeast foot of South Mountain. It is dated at 

30.7 ± 0.9 Ma by Moore (1973a).

Associated mineral resources

Sulflde ore deposits in the Stockton mining district are located on the structurally broken 

lead edge of the folded upper plate of the Stockton thrust (Lufkin, 1965; Moore and others (1966); 

and Tooker, 1998). Early production in the Stockton mining district between 1864 and 1901 was 

combined with that at Ophir; more recent production at Stockton is shown in Table 4. The district 

has been inactive since 1972. The typical sulfide ores occur in fissure- and bedded-replacement 

deposits of lead, zinc, copper, gold, and silver. Near-surface ores are oxidized, but grade into 

sulfldes at depth (Gilluly, 1932). The Stockton district ores occur mainly in the Pennsylvanian 

Rush Lake and Salvation units of Tooker and Roberts (1992), which are correlated with the orebearing horizon of the Clipper Ridge Member of the Bingham Mine Formation at Bingham. The 

ores are in close spatial association with quartz monzonite dikes and plugs and occur mainly along 

steep-dipping, north-northwest-trending faults and in adjacent locally replaced carbonate beds. 

The ores seem to diminish at moderate depth, leading to the supposition that mineralization is 

restricted to the much-broken upper plate of the Stockton thrust. Although prospected thoroughly, 

the same rocks along the less-broken South Mountain anticline are not mineralized sufficiently to 

produce ores.

Mining activity in the Stockton mining district apparently was restricted to the upper plate 

of the Stockton thrust. No deep exploration seems to have been undertaken to determine if 

mineralization occurs in the lower plate (Bingham nappe) Butterfield Peaks Formation, which 

hosts ores in the Bingham mining district, and through which magma and hydrothermal solutions 

passed.

Abundant resources of sand and gravel construction materials occur along the edges of the 

nappe. These locally thick deposits are mainly the result of wave action in Quaternary Lake

96
Bonneville (Gilbert, 1886) that distributed debris shed from the accelerated erosion of the uplifted 

nappes overlying the Uinta trend. The very substantial Bonneville bar and spit near Stockton, 

Utah, has been extensively quarried for highway, railroad, and other construction in the area, but 

no production data are available. Numerous borrow pits also occur in the nearby beach deposits.

Fivemile Pass Nappe

Located in the southernmost part of the Oquirrh Mountains, immediately north of Fivemile 

Pass and mainly in the drainages of Wells and Clay Canyons (fig. 16), the allochthonous Fivemile 

Pass nappe [originally called Wells-Clay Canyon nappe by Tooker (1987)] is distinguished from 

the adjoining Bingham nappe by its limited yet distinctive stratigraphy, and by its complex, 

discordant fold structures. The geology of the nappe is generalized from maps by Tooker (1987) 

and Tooker and Roberts (1998). The nappe is bounded on the north and northeast by the Clay 

thrust, on the west by the Sunshine tear fault, and on the east and south by the Cedar tear fault, 

which is concealed by Quaternary alluvium. However, the entire range and nappe are terminated 

by the inferred northeast-trending Fivemile tear fault in Cedar Valley that separates them from the 

Thorpe Hills' stratigraphic and structural regime. A measured section of the sedimentary rocks in 

the Fivemile Pass nappe was not made because only fault-bounded, fragmented parts of the Mercur 

limestone member of the Great Blue Limestone and normally overlying Manning Canyon Shale are 

present. Thick clay-shale beds in the Mercur limestone member in Wells and Clay Canyons have 

been mined for structural clay mineral products (Hyatt, 1956). The gem mineral variscite 

(Sinkankas, 1976) occurs locally in the Mercur limestone member of the Great Blue Limestone in 

the southern Oquirrh Mountains only in the Fivemile Pass nappe. The mineral occurs elsewhere in 

adjoining ranges to the southwest, apparently in fragments of this same nappe. 

FIGURE 16, NEAR HERE.

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Stratigraphic characteristics and correlation of sedimentary rocks 

The sedimentary rocks within the Fivemile Pass nappe include portions of the Mercur 

limestone member of Gordon,Tooker and Dutro (1999) of the Great Blue Limestone and mostly 

covered portions of the middle part of the Manning Canyon Shale, both of Late Mississippian 

(Chester) age (Gordon, written communication, 1985). Unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial 

deposits overlap the sedimentary rocks.

Mercur limestone member of the Great Blue Limestone While similar in age to strata in 

the type and reference localities in the southern Oquirrh Mountains, the Mercur limestone member 

of the Great Blue Limestone in the Fivemile Pass nappe differs in having relatively larger 

proportions of shale to banded silty limestone and interbedded arenaceous, argillaceous, and 

sparsely fossiliferous limestones. The member's top and bottom beds are not exposed; the section 

probably is a part of the lower-middle part above the Caninia zone of Gordon, (written 

commun. 1985). Thick green-black shale beds with thin interbedded chert and quartzite bands have 

displaced limestone and thin shaly intervals that characterize the type section near Ophir (Gordon, 

Tooker, and Dutro, 1999). This shift of sedimentational facies in the Fivemile Pass nappe, which 

is believed to have formed an unknown distance south-southwest of its present location, is 

believed to resemble a transitional depositional system in the Bingham nappe intermediate between 

that observed in the Mercur member of the Great Blue Limestone at Ophir and that of the type 

section of the Chiulos Shale member of the Great Blue Formation in the East Tintic Mountains 

(Morris and Lovering, 1961). Several thick altered shale units in Wells Canyon, which locally 

have been mined for brick clay, originally were thought to be part of the Manning Canyon Shale. 

They are now correlated with the much-faulted middle part of the Mercur limestone member of the 

Great Blue Limestone (Tooker, 1987).

The thickness of the upper part of the Mercur limestone is not known. The absence of 

sufficient fossils to date these rocks precisely makes their correlation with the Poker Knoll or 

Chulios Members of the Great Blue Formation at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961) only

98
tentative. However, the upper part of the member at Ophir is composed of interbedded 

fossiliferous, sandy, and cherty limestone intervals up to 20 ft thick, and thin (1 to 10 ft thick) 

shale and argillaceous limestone. These characteristics also suggest that the sedimentary rocks in 

the nappe represent a transitional facies between those at Ophir and Tintic.

Manning Canyon Shale The rocks correlated stratigraphically with the middle part of the 

Manning Canyon Shale by Tooker (1987) occur in the upper plate of the Wells thrust, which is an 

imbricate thrust in the Fivemile Pass nappe. About 46 m are exposed and consist of a thickbedded, fossiliferous, brown-weathering quartzite and thin-bedded dark-gray limestone and 

interbedded argillaceous limestone and shale partings. Fossils include plant debris, and a 

brachiopod and gastropod fauna of Late Mississippian age (M.Gordon, Jr., written commun. 

1990). The unit is overlain by Lake Bonneville sediments.

Structural features

The folded and complexly faulted sedimentary rocks of the Fivemile Pass nappe are 

recognized by fold structures on the upper plate of the sole Clay thrust, which are discordant with 

and overlap rocks of the Bingham nappe. They were emplaced into their present position from the 

south-southwest. The main fold in the Bingham nappe, the Ophir anticline, trends due south and 

plunges to the south beneath the Fivemile Pass nappe, whereas, for the most part, folds in the 

Mercur limestone member and Manning Canyon Shale on the Fivemile Pass nappe trend 

southeastward. Three main northeast-trending, steep-dipping tear faults segment the nappe into 

two main blocks. Imbricate thrusts emplace Manning Canyon Shale over the younger parts of the 

Mercur limestone member of the Great Blue near the south end of the nappe. Several steepdipping normal faults do not greatly offset the sedimentary rocks.

Folds The folds above the Clay thrust, which underlies the Fivemile Pass nappe, are 

evenly spaced, broad, with low amplitude, and are open in cross section. These probably were

99
formed in a thinned, less competent leading edge of this thrust plate. However, locally, in the 

upper plate of an imbricate thrust lying between the Sunshine and Wells tear faults, east-northeasttrending folds in the Mercur limestone are tight and asymmetrical, most probably the result of more 

intense friction between the tear faults in a more shallowly-dipping part of the sole thrust plane or 

and imbrication above it. The east-southeast-trending, low amplitude, open folds in Manning 

Canyon Shale and Mercur limestone member of the Great Blue Limestone are on the upper plate of 

the imbricate Wells thrust fault, east of the Fivemile Pass tear fault.

Faults The sole Clay thrust, thrust fault imbrications in the upper plate, and tear and 

normal faults define the Fivemile Pass nappe. The Clay thrust is a relatively steep-dipping fault, 

judging by its trend across the topography and lack of asymmetrical or overturned folds. Its 

upper-plate folds are offset progressively by the northeast-trending Sunshine, Fivemile, and Cedar 

tear faults. These tear faults are steep-dipping, north-northeast trending, mostly with only 

relatively small apparent displacement within the nappe. An overlying imbricate Wells thrust in 

the nappe places younger Manning Canyon Shale over the Mercur limestone member east of the 

Fivemile fault. Mercur limestone reappears at the south end of the range by sedimentary 

succession and normal faulting. The impact of Basin and Range extensional faulting is presumed, 

but apparently is not as marked here as in the adjoining Bingham nappe.

Location and types of igneous rocks

No igneous rocks have been observed in the nappe. Several small breccia pipes, 

presumed to be of igneous origin, intrude the Great Blue Limestone in the Sunshine mining 

area, near the boundary of the Bingham and Fivemile Pass nappes (Tooker, 1987). They 

contain angular fragments of altered limestone and rhyolite porphyry(?). The largest 

breccia pipe (61 x 183 m), which occurs in Clay Canyon northeast of Sunshine, in the 

Fivemile Pass nappe (Tooker, 1987), has been extensively altered in part to clay minerals 

How this body is related to Tertiary igneous activity, if at all, remains to be determined.

100
Associated mineral resources

Economic brick-clay deposits and the semiprecious mineral variscite have been 

mined in the Wells and Clay Canyon areas and along the south end of the Oquirrh 

Mountains in the Fivemile Pass area (Ornelas 1953; and Hyatt, 1956). There is no 

evidence of the occurrence of base and precious metal deposits in the nappe. The clay 

deposits occur in the relatively thick, altered shale horizons of the Mercur limestone 

member of the Great Blue Limestone in Wells Canyon. The clay layers in the interbedded 

shale units range in thickness from 8 to 15 m, from light gray to dark gray in color, and 

with thin interbedded red and yellow iron-stained oxide bands and layers. The plastic noncalcareous, greenish-gray to black, and iron-stained clay-rich zone is overlain by mediumbedded to massive, medium-gray limestone. Production data of mined clay materials are 

unavailable.

Hamilton (1959) and Sinkankas (1976) described the occurrence of variscite, 

originally discovered in 1890, in more massive overlying beds of the Great Blue Limestone 

in Clay Canyon. The shale-rich horizon is overlain by massive, medium-bedded, darkgray to black limestones, which, where brecciated locally in Clay Canyon, contain small 

deposits of the nodular semi-precious gem mineral variscite, (A1(PO4). 2H2O). The mineral is 

believed to form by seepage of phosphate-impregnated waters through aluminous rocks to form 

seams and crevices along shear and fracture zones. Cryptocrystalline quartz accompanies the 

variscite as chalcedony veinlets or chert, and the nodules are generally oval, flattened, and 

embedded in a matrix of quartz and calcite. The color of variscite varies from "light to dark shades 

of rich yellowish green, but very pale to almost white shades are known as well as those of purest 

deep green (Sinkankas, 1976, p. 230)". The source, time, and place of impregnation of phosphate 

waters is not known. Production of variscite peaked in 1909-1911, resulting in thousands of 

pounds. Since that time production has been sporadic, the last known production was in 1942.

101
Quaternary sand and gravel deposits are also abundant and mined in the Fivemile 

Pass area. Their production has been intermittent and the amount taken is not known.

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v. 9, no. 7, p. 308-313. 

__, 1984, Mesozoic structure of the Newfoundland Mountains, Utah: Horizontal shortening and subsequent

extension in the hinterland of the Sevier belt: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 95, no. 11, p.

1280-1292. 

Allmendinger, R.W., Sharp, J.W., Von Tish, Douglas, Serpa, Laura, Brown, Larry, Kaufman, Sidney, Oliver, Jack,

and Smith, R.B., 1983, Cenozoic and Mesozoic structure of the eastern Basin and Range province, Utah, from

COCORP seismic-reflection data: Geology, v. 11, no. 9, p. 532-536. 

Allmendinger, R.W., Miller, D.M., and Jordan, T.E., 1984,Known and inferred Mesozoic deformation in the

hinterland of the Sevier belt, northwest Utah, in Kerns, G.J and Kerns R.L., Jr, eds., Geology of northwest

Utah, southern Idaho, and northeast Nevada: Utah Geological Association Publication 13, p. 21-34. 

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112
APPENDIX

1. Columnar section of the Permian-age Curry, Clinker, and Kirkman formational units of Welsh and James 

(1961, plate 5), from section no. 2, [Bingham] district geology map.

SECTION NO. 2 

DISTRICT GEOLOGY

MAP 

(A.J.-57)

Kirkman

Clinker

Curry

Uncon(ofmitY

Dixon 

Caledonia

Unconformity

LEGEND

Unconformity _ _ _ __ _ 

Igneous Rocks

Extrusive, flows

Sedimentary Rocks

Quartzile or sandstone

Sandy Limestone or Sillttone.

Limestone

Dolomite _ __ _ _ _ _

Breccioted rock

. '. -. \ '

< t tf ^^t t(

-|TiTlT-fn

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KENNECOTT COPPER CORPORATION

STRATIGRAPHIC CORRELATION CHART

BINGHAM MINING DISTRICT AND

ADJACENT AREAS

BY aE. WELSH,A.M. JAMES, AND W H. SMITH 

1959

1 13
2. Measured sections of the A, South Peak, B, Salvation, and C, Rush Lake formational units of

Tooker and Roberts, that constitute the Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks in the South Mountain

A Stratigraphic section of the South Peak unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992) 

composed of the upper part of the Oquirrh Group (Early Permian) measured 

on South Mountain along the ridge across SE-1/4 sec. 13, R. 6 W., T.4 S. and 

5-7/2 sec. 18, SW-1/4 sec. 17, R. 5 W., T. 4 S., South Mountain 7 1/2-min. 

quadrangle, Utah.

[Measured by R.J. Roberts and E.W. Tooker, October 1961]

Thickness Distance 

(meters) above base 

(meters)

Covered by alluvium and overlapped by the

concealed north-trending Tintic Valley thrust

fault 1904

Unconformity

South Peak unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992) 

Oquirrh Group

22. Calcareous quartzite, light buff-tan,

fine sand, medium-bedded to massive, 

well-jointed and fractured, interbedded 

orthoquartzite, bioclastic limestone and 

sand partings with fusulinids; weathers 

red-brown to tan, thin surface rind, in 

part platy float; mostly covered slope

USGS colln. f22621 near top. "Bioclastic 

limestone with well rounded sand grains, 

bryozoa, Triticites sp. and Schwagerina sp. 

some incipient euniculi. The age suggested 

is early Permian, late Wolfcamp to earliest 

Leonard equivalent" (R.C. Douglass, written 

commun. 1962) 243 1661

21. Calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite and

114
limestone interbedded, medium lightgray, coarse-grained to sandy, calcareous 

cement, medium-bedded orthoquartzite 

and sand partings, banded; weathers 

light-gray, grains in relief; finer dark 

gray limy clastic sands include 

fossil fragments (brachiopods), calcareous 

mudstone at 11 m, and fusulinids in sandy 

limestone with phosphate coating; mostly 

covered slope

USGS colln. f22620 at 16 m "Wellrounded sandstone with detrital fragments of 

bryozoa, Triticites sp. and Schwagerina sp. 

The age suggested is Early Permian, late 

Wolfcamp equivalent" (R.C Douglass, 

written commun, 1962) 47 1614

20. Calcareous quartzite, tan-to-olive gray, 

sandy, mostly calcareous cement, 

medium-bedded to massive, thin-bedded 

sandstone layers with worm trails; 

weathers red-brown to buff with 

thick surface rind; mostly covered slope 265 1349

19. Sandstone and calcareous quartzite, 

interbedded; buff, sandy; weathers 

deep yellow-brown; contains worm 

trails and fusulinid molds; mostly covered 

slope 119 1230

18. Calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite,

interbedded, tan-buff, to olive-gray and

light-gray, sandy, medium bedded;

interbedded ferruginous sandstone

0.9-1.8 m thick contains worm trails;

weathers light brown-tan; covered

slope 52 1178

17. Orthoquartzite, and calcareous quartzite,

interbedded, tan-buff and light brown bands,

sandy; interbedded ferruginous sandstone;

weathers yellow-tan and reddish brown,

ferruginous surface rind on calcareous

quartzite, worm trails; covered slope 8 1170

Porphyry dike 11

16. Calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite 

interbedded, tan-buff to light-gray, 

medium grained to sandy, mediumbedded, local banding; 

interbedded limy sandstone layers; 

weathers light brown-tan, very thin

115
surface rind; covered slope 5 1165

15. Calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite,

interbedded; quartzite contains molds of 

fusulinids, near top; bedded chert with 

preserved fusulinids; chert pebbles of 

earlier rocks; phosphatic replacement 

of fusulinids; mostly covered slope

USGS colln. f22619 at 12.9 m, "Coarse 

sand with Schwagerina sp. as detrital fragments, 

abraded and chemically altered. The age 

suggested is Early Permian, Wolfcamp 

equivalent" (R.C. Douglass, written 

commun, 1962) 13 1152

14. Calcareous quartzite, tan-buff to olive-gray, 

fine to coarse grained in upper part, 

medium-bedded, often thin interbedded orthoquartzite and limy 

sandstone beds; weathers reddish-brown to 

light-buff-gray, with soft surface rind 8 cm 

thick; poorly preserved fusulinid molds at top; 

mostly covered slope 158 994

13. Ferruginous sandstone, yellow-brown, sandy, 

medium to thin, bedded with thin 

interbedded calcareous quartzite and bedded 

chert; weathers medium brown, rounded 

float; covered slope 53 941

12. Calcareous quartzite, medium-gray, sandy, 

thin to medium bedded, interbedded 

sandy limestone and platy limy sandstone, 

largely ferruginous beds up to 1 m 

in upper part, local banded thin phosphatic 

chert beds; weather reddish-brown and yellowbrown, rounded fragments with medium 

soft surface rind; worm trails common in 

ferruginous sandstone; mostly covered 

slope 114 827

Porphyry dike 51

11. Calcareous quartzite, medium-gray,

medium-grained, thin- to medium-bedded,

locally banded, interbedded thin, sandy

limestone containing worm trails and limy

sandstone partings; weathers reddish-brown

and light-tan, sandy surface, thin surface

rind, platy fragments in part; mostly

covered slope 18 809

10. Calcareous quartzite and sandstone,

116
interbedded; orthoquartzite and platy 

limy sandstone with worm trails, and 

bedded chert; covered slope 132 677

9. Limestone, dark gray, sandy, thin-bedded

sandstone parting; weathers medium dark

gray, sand partings weather brown-tan;

covered slope 0.6 676

8. Orthoquartzite, light gray-tan to olive gray, 

medium grained to sandy, mostly 

medium-bedded with interbedded 

calcareous quartzite, ferruginous 

sandstone, bedded chert, and platy 

limy sandstone; weathers brown-tan; 

fusulinid molds locally, worm trails in 

sandstone; covered slope 114 562

7. Limestone, medium dark-gray, dense,

fine-grained to silty, sandstone partings;

weathers medium light-gray; covered

slope 0.7 561

6. Calcareous quartzite and ferruginous

sandstone, interbedded, light gray-tan,

medium grained to sandy; worm trails

and fusulinid molds in sandstone and

quartzite, weathers brown-tan; covered

slope 41 521

5. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine grained 

to sandy, with sand partings and lenses; 

weathers medium-gray; covered slope 0.6 520

4. Calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite, 

interbedded; light gray-tan, medium 

grained to sandy, occasional yellow-brown, 

thin-bedded partings and thin to medium 

beds of ferruginous sandstone that 

weather reddish-brown-tan, thick surface 

rinds on rounded float from 

calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite has 

more angular float; fusulinid molds found 

in sandstone at 104 m, worm trails occur 

in some of the ferruginous sandstone; 

mostly covered slope 357 163

3. Ferruginous sandstone and calcareous quartzite, 

interbedded; sandstone brown, medium

117
grained to sandy, ferruginous cement;

weathers dark reddish-brown; worm

trails, and fusulinid molds occur locally;

quartzite thin-bedded, banded; covered

slope 38 125

2. Orthoquartzite, tan, sandy, silica cement,

medium bedded, banded and crossbedded

locally, weathers reddish-brown; covered

slope 4 121

1. Limestone and calcareous quartzite,

interbedded; sandy limestone with

interbedded ferruginous sandstone

locally; covered slope 121

Total South Peak unit measured 1903 

Conformable contact

Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group (upper beds only) 

17. Limestone, medium-gray, fossiliferous

B. Stratigraphic section of the Salvation unit ofTooker and Roberts (19892 in the Oquirrh Group 

on the South Mountain nappe, measured on South Mountain along the ridge across S-l/2 sec. 

22 and N-1/2 sec. 21, T. 4 S., R. 5 W., Stockton 15-min. or South Mountain 7-1/2 min. 

quadrangles

[Measured by RJ. Roberts and E.W. looker, October, 1961]

Distana

Thickness above ba 

(meters) (meters

South unit, Oquirrh Group (lowest beds only):

Limestone and quartzite, interbedded; sandy limestone and 

calcareous quartzite with local interlaminated ferruginous 

sandstone; covered slope 832

Contact conformable.

118
Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group:

17. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained to sandy, mediumbedded; weathers medium light gray; productid 

brachiopods, fusulinids in sandy limestone.

USGS colln. f22623 at 14 m, "Fine sand with 

Triticites sp. The age suggested is Late Pennsylvania^ 

probably late Missouri or earliest Virgil equivalent." 

(R.C. Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62). A 

brachiopod was identified as "Linoproductus sp. indet." 

(Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written commun. 10/14/66).

USGS colln. f22624 at 24 m, "Fine sand with 

Triticites sp. It probably is referable to latest Missouri 

equivalent but an early Virgil age is a possibility." (R.C 

Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62). Productid 

brachiopods and bryozoans common in other layers 29 803

16. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; light tan-gray, 

sandy, calcareous cement, medium-bedded 

quartzite, and medium-gray, fine grained to 

sandy, medium-bedded limestone with shale 

partings; weathers buff (quartzite) 

and light blue gray (limestone); fossils locally in 

limestone include bryozoans and fusulinids

USGS colln. f22622 at 10 m, "Fine sand with 

some bryozoa and Kansanella sp. The age suggested is 

Late Pennsylvania^ probably Missouri equivalent." 

(R.C. Douglass, written commun, 7/20/62). 12 791

15. Quartzite, light-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement in 

lower part, silica cement more common in upper part, 

medium-bedded, local banding, interbedded silicacemented quartzite in lower part and sandy limestone 

throughout, sparse ripple marked surfaces noted locally; 

weathers red brown to tan; covered slope 69 722

14. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, 

interbedded with locally crossbedded, and often 

fossiliferous, medium dark-gray sandy limestone up to 1 

m thick; quartzite weathers buff, limestone medium bluegray; fossils (identified by R.C. Douglass, written 

commun., 7/20/62) in sandy limestone layers include 

fusulinids, brachiopods, crinoids, bryozoans, 

Syringopora and cup corals

USGS colln. 22615 at 5 m, "Fine sand with 

crinoidal debris, bryozoan fragments and fragments of 

Kansanella sp. The age suggested is Late 

Pennsylvania^ probably Missouri equivalent."

119
USGS colln f22616 at 46 m," Fine sand with 

Triticites sp., scattered, and bioclastic limestone with 

Tetrataxis sp., texturalid, Bradyina sp., Millerella sp., 

and Fusulinella sp. or Pseudofusulinella sp. This 

second piece really looks like a piece from the middle 

Pennsylvania^"

USGS colln f22617 at 147 m, "Silty fragmented 

limestone with Bradyina sp. and Kansanella sp. The 

age suggested is Late Pennsylvania^ probably Missouri 

equivalent."

USGS colln. £22618 at 126-132 m, "Fine sand with 

abundant small fusulinids something like the kind 

Thompson calls Oketaelld but more globular." and 

brachiopods and corals in the uppermost part; mostly 

covered slope 203 519

13. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained to sandy, thick bedded; 

weathers olive brown to light gray; corals, Derbyia 

brachiopods, bryozoans, and fusulinids

USGS colln f22614 at 155 m," Fine sand with textularids 

and Triticites sp. The age suggests Late Pennsylvanian, 

probably Missouri equivalent." R.C. Douglass, written 

commun. 7/20/62 4 515

12. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cemented, 

medium-bedded with interbedded limy sandstone, 

crossbedded in part, thin platy to shaly limestone 

partings; weathers reddish brown to buff, medium-soft 

surface rind; covered slope 116 399

11. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, mostly silica-cemented, 

massive to medium-bedded with interbedded sandy 

limestone up to .3 m thick and thin interlayers of 

calcareous-cemented quaitzite, crossbedded locally; 

weathers tan buff, platy float; partly covered slope 41 358

10. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained, thin-bedded; weathers

light gray; mostly covered slope 1 357

9. Quartzite, medium tan-gray, medium- to coarse-sandy, mostly 

calcareous cement, medium-bedded to massive, 

interbedded thin laminae of limestone, limy sandstone, 

and shale partings, well-jointed, banded locally; 

weathers tan buff, pitted thin surface rind, alternate hard 

and softer layers locally weather in relief; fossils in 

interbedded sandy limestone, cup and Syringopora 

corals, brachiopods, gastropods, crinoid stems, 

bryozoans

USGS colln. 61F76 at 247 m, "Syringoporoid 

coral, Straparollus (Euomphalus} sp. ident." 

(Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written cornmun. 10/4/66) 271 86

120
8. Limestone, medium dark gray, fine grained to sandy, mediumbedded; weathers light gray with brown sand partings; 

platy float 3 83

7. Quartzite, medium dark-gray, sandy, calcareous cement,

medium-bedded, banded locally; weathers medium light

gray with light-brown bands; mostly covered slope 8 75

6. Limestone, medium-gray, fine grained to sandy size increases 

upward medium-bedded, sand partings more abundant 

in upper part; weathers tan to medium light gray, sandy 

surface, platy float; well-preserved fusulinids, cup corals 

abundant at base 4 67

5. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; (quartzite) calcareous

cement (limestone) sandy; covered slope 6 61

4. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained to sandy, mediumbedded; weathers light blue gray, sandy surface; 

abundant fusulinid, brachiopod, bryozoan, crinoid 

assemblage

USGS colln. f22611 at base, "Coarse bioclastic 

limestone with fragments of foraminifera including 

Bradyina sp., and Pseudofusulinella sp."

USGS colln. f22612 at 1 m, "Fine sand with 

fragments of Triticites sp. The age suggested is Late

Pennsylvanian, Missouri equivalent." (R.C. 

Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62) 2 59

3. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; light gray-tan to olive 

brown, sandy, calcareous cemented, medium-bedded, 

locally banded and crossbedded quartzite, and mediumgray platy limestone; weathers yellow brown to reddish 

brown, thick surface rind (quartzite) and light gray 

(limestone); mostly covered slope 55 4

2. Limestone, medium-gray, sandy, medium-bedded; weathers 

light tan gray; abundant crinoids, cup and Syringopora 

corals and fusulinid fauna

USGS colln. f22610 at 2 m, "Fine sand with 

scattered fragments of Triticites sp. The age suggested 

is Late Pennsylvanian, Missouri equivalent." (R.C. 

Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62). 3 1

1. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained thin-bedded,

locally laminated; weathers blue gray, sandy surface; top

.3 m brecciated and cemented with white calcite 1

Total Salvation unit measured 832

Conformable contact.

Rush Lake unit, Oquirrh Group (upper beds only)

121
37 Quartzite, calcareous cement, interbedding limy sandstone

C. Stratigraphic section of the Rush Lake unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992) 

in the Oquirrh Group, South Mountain nappe measured on South Mountain 

along the main ridge across S-l/2 sec. 22 and N-l/2 sec. 21, T. 4 S., R. 5 W., 

Stockton 7-1/2-minute quadrangle, Utah.

[Measured by R.J. Roberts and E.W. Tooker, October, 1961] 

Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group (lowest beds only):

Limestone, medium dark-gray, thin bedded, locally laminated 

Contact conformable

Rush Lake unit, Oquirrh Group:

Thickness 

(meters)

Distanci

above ba

(meters'

37.Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, thin 

interbedded limy sandstone and sandy limestone partings 

and layers in upper part; worm trails in thin ferruginous 

layers and brachiopods, crinoids, and fusulinids, in 

limestones; weathers light brown-tan to yellow-gray, 

slight local pitting; brachiopod shells and spines, crinoid 

fragments in limestone, and fusulinids in sandy 

limestones near top; mostly covered slope 182

36. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained, medium-bedded, 

black chert nodules and lenses; weathers medium gray, 

chert weathers brown and stands in relief; partly covered 

slope 1

35. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, calcareous-cemented,

interbedded sandy limestone and limy sandstone layers

and partings, in part banded near top; weathers brown

with thick surface rind; covered slope 150

34. Limestone and quartzite, interbedded; sandy limestone and 

silica and calcareous-cemented fine-grained to sandy 

quartzite, local ferruginous sandstone and fine-grained 

sandstone layers; mostly covered slope 133

33. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained, medium- to 

thick-bedded; weathers dark blue-gray, rough pitted

1,170

1,169

1,019

8861

122
surface; abundant well-preserved Syringopora and cup 

corals, brachiopods, and fusulinids

USGS colln. f22609, "Silty bioclastic limestone with 

Tetretaris sp., Millerella sp., textularids, Bradyina sp., 

and Wedekindellina sp. The age suggested a Middle 

Pennsylvanian, late Des Moines equivalent." (R.C. 

Douglass, written commun., 7/20/62) 2 884

32. Quartzite, medium-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, 

medium-bedded with interbedded thin silica-cemented 

quartzite, interbedded thin sandy limestone layers in 

middle part, banded in upper part, crossbedded locally; 

weathers reddish-tan, platy to blocky float, in part pitted; 

sandy limestone contains sparse well-preserved 

fusulinids and Syringopora and cup corals at 52+ m; 

mostly covered slope 111 773

31. Quartzite, tan-gray, sandy, cemented by silica; covered slope 10 763

30. Limestone, medium light-gray, fine-grained and silty to sandy, 

thin-bedded with interbedded thin (up to .3 m) 

calcareous quartzite layers, black chert nodules locally 

abundant; weathers yellow-gray to tan, platy; covered 

slope 12 751

29. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained, thin- to mediumbedded, very thinly laminated in part, sand partings 

locally, black chert nodules and lenses moderately 

abundant; weathers medium blue-gray, platy; wellpreserved brachiopods are sparse, worm trails in yellowweathered limy sandstone at 53 m; covered slope 57 694

28. Quartzite, buff-tan, coarse-sandy, mostly calcareous cement, 

medium-bedded, banded with minor crossbedding, shaly 

limestone partings, thin interbedded limestone layers in 

basal part; weathers reddish-tan, thick 5-cm partly 

ferruginous, porous weathered rind, pitted surface in 

more silicified beds; sparse silicified Syringopora coral 

in limestone at base; mostly covered slope 91 603

27. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained to silty, shaly and 

thin-bedded; sandy limestone partings; weathers medium 

light gray; common well-preserved crinoid, bryozoan, 

and brachiopod assemblage; mostly covered slope 7 596

26. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained, dense, mediumbedded to massive, local laminar bands; weathers bluegray, pitted surface; sparse, well-preserved silicified 

brachiopods, corals, and crinoid fossils; prominent 

outcrop 12 584

123
25. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, silica-cemented, banded in 

part, interbedded ferruginous sandstone layer at 8 m 

weathers brown to light tan-brown; covered slope 25 559

24. Shale, light-gray, silty, thin-bedded, interbedded thin banded 

quartzite and sandy limestone beds; weathers buff to 

light reddish-brown-gray; platy covered slope 70 489

23. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, calcareous cement, mediumbedded; weathers tan to light brown; partly covered 

slope 16 473

22. Limestone, medium gray, sandy, thin-bedded at base,

medium-bedded toward top, sand partings and laminae

in lower part, medial 1-meter quartzite layer; weathers

light gray; platy float 3 470

21. Quartzite, light gray-brown, sandy, calcareous cement,

medium-bedded; weathers tan 7 463

20. Limestone, dark gray, fine grained, medium bedded, dense;

weathers light blue-gray; pitted surface 1 462

19. Quartzite and sandstone, medium brown-grey, sandy,

calcareous and ferruginous cement, medium-bedded;

weathers tan and dark brown 9 453

18. Limestone, medium gray, fine-grained to sandy, mediumbedded, crossbedded locally; weathers light gray, platy 

float; sparse, well-preserved small cup corals 5 448

17. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, silica-cemented, medium 

bedded, a .6 m interbedded sandy limestone with 

crossbedded sandy partings at top; weathers tan, very 

thin surface rind, slope and ledge outcrops 14 434

16. Quartzite, light gray-tan, coarse grained sandy, calcareouscemented, medium-bedded to massive; weathers light 

brown, thick porous surface rind, blocky float 9 425

15. Limestone, medium gray, silty, medium bedded; weathers 

yellow-gray to buff, platy; well-preserved, abundant, 

crinoid, bryozoan, productid, and spiriferid brachiopod 

fauna; mostly covered slope

USGS colln. 224387-PC at 23 m, "Derbyia aff. D. 

crassa (Meek and Hander), Neochoneltes sp., 

Grandaurispina sp., J urasania cf. J. nebrascensis 

(Owen), Cancrinella cf. C. broonensis (Swallow), 

Crurithuris cf. C. planoconvexa (Shumard), 

Condtathyris perplexa (McChessney), Hustedia 

mormoni (Marcou), Composita ? sp. indet. (fragment), 

Beecheria cf. B. bovidens (Morton), Paralleolodon ? sp 

indet., andAmmonoid indet. (juvenile). The age of this

124
collection of small silicified fossils is Middle

Pennsylvania (Des Moines), although it can also be

somewhat younger Pennsylvania^" (Mackenzie

Gordon, Jr., written common. 10/14/66). 27 368

14. Quartzite, light gray, sandy, silica-cemented, thin- to mediumbedded, banded in part; weathers reddish light gray, hard 

conchoidal fracture; partly covered slope 30 368

13. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained to silty, thinbedded; weathers light gray-tan; common well preserved 

fenestrate bryozoans and productid and spiriferid 

brachiopods; mostly covered slope 1 367

12. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; thin laminated platy

sandy limestone and blocky quartzite, medium bedded;

covered slope 9 358

11. Limestone, dark gray, fine grained, medium bedded; weathers

blue gray, smooth surface 1 357

10. Quartzite, tan-gray, calcareous-cemented quartz grains,

medium-bedded; weathers tan to light brown with thin

softer weathered surface rind; platy to blocky float,

covered slope 3 354

9. Sandy limestone and quartzite, interbedded; medium gray 

(limestone) and tan-gray (quartzite), sandy, thin- to 

medium-bedded, black chert nodules with sandy margins 

locally; mostly covered slope 36 318

8. Quartzite and shaly limestone, interbedded; well-preserved

bryozoans and crinoid stems in limestone; covered slope 13 305

7. Shaly limestone, medium dark-gray, silty, thin-bedded to platy 

at top; weathers purple gray and medium gray; 

brachiopods, bryozoans at base; mostly covered 36 269

6. Limestone, medium gray, medium to fine grained, medium

bedded; weathers medium light gray, rough pitted

surface, fossils rare 3 266 

5. Sandstone, reddish-brown and tan, sandy, calcareous cement

to part, medium-bedded; weathers light brown-tan;

mostly covered slope 7 259

4. Quartzite, brown-tan, sandy mostly silica cemented quartz

grains, but is slightly calcareous, medium-bedded with

thin interbeds of calcareous sandstone; weathers light

brown tan with smooth surface; upper part covered

slope 31 228

3. Limestone, medium gray and tan, silty and sandy, thin platy 

and medium bedded, in part with black chert nodules, in 

part bioclastic, interbedded with thin (5 cm) quartzite and

125
shale partings; weathers medium light gray-brown and

yellow-brown; fenestrate and stem bryozoans, and

brachiopods locally abundant 27 201

2. Limestone, medium-gray, silty to sandy, thin and platy to 

medium-bedded,, interbedded shaly and sandy units, 

crossbedded in part, locally thin interbedded cherty 

limestone units; weathers medium light gray and yellow 

brown; bryozoans

USGS colln. 61F70A at 169 feet, "Fistuliporoid (?) 

bryozoan, indet., Fenestella sp., Polypora sp., 

Archimedes sp. (fragments of fronds), Penniretepra 

sp., rhomboproid bryozoans, crinoid colummals, 

Juresania sp. indet." Fauna is compatible with Des 

Moines age of section." (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written 

commun. 10/14/66) 30 171

1. Limestone, medium gray, fine grained to sandy, thin bedded, 

and distinctly laminated and locally convoluted, to 

medium bedded, black chert nodules moderately 

abundant in medium-bedded rock, shale partings 

common and sandy bioclastic rock locally abundant; 

weathers medium light gray, chert nodules to light 

sandy-brown; locally brecciated medium sandy layers; 

fossiliferous with coral bryozoan, and crinoid stems, and 

small brachiopods

USGS colln f22608 at 3 m, "Bioclastic limestone 

with Bradyina, textularids, and Fusulina sp. The age 

suggested is Middle Pennsylvania^ late Des Moines 

equivalent." (R.C. Douglass, written commun. 

7/20/62) 171

Total Rush Lake unit measured 1,352 

Conformable contact (?), lower part of the Rush Lake unit is covered by alluvium.

###

126
112°30' 112°22'30" 112°07'30" 112°00'

40°45'

- 40°30'

Fivemile P^ss r\ )

Fivemile Pass

- 40°37'30"

Figure 1. The Oquirrh Mountains, Utah, its constituent 7 1/2-

minutc topographic quadrangles, and the main mining areas 

in the range.

'22'30"

40°15'

127
Figure 2. North-central Utah locations of the Oquirrh Mountains 

and neighboring ranges, the Basin and Range and Rocky 

Mountains physiographic provinces, and the inferred 

generalized axial trace of the basement Uinta trend zone.

128
Inferred directions of 

nappe movement Kilometres

Pass Canyon nappe 

Bingham nappe 

Rogers Canyon nappe 

South Mountain nappe 

Fivemile Pass nappe

Figure 3. Inferred locations of the Paleozoic miogeoclinal Oquirrh 

and Sublette basin deposition areas on the craton platform, 

the North American craton and Antler erogenic belt 

sediment source areas, directions of individual nappe 

movements to their foreland placement areas, and the trace 

of the Uinta-trend axis.

129
tro H H ' ' ' '

3 iiP ill's .. 5

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M°UNTAINS

-38C

50

_._._._._.!_ 

'00 Kilometres

Figure 5. Locations of the Sevier foreland thrust belt, the

approximate axis of the Uinta trend and its uplifted basement 

buttress area.

131
Quadrangles 

A Bingham Canyon 

B Stockton 

C Lowe Peak 

D Ophir 

E Mercur

Nappes

1. Pass Canyon

2. Bingham

3. Rogers Canyon

4. South Mountain

5. Fivemile Pass

112 0 22'30"

M2°LV

D

NAPPES

1. Pass Canyon

2. Bingham

3. Rogers Canyon

4. South Mountain

5. Fivemile Pass

112°07'30"

-40°37'30"

E

40°30'

40°22'30'

40

Figure 6. Diagram showing the inferred directions and sequence 

(1 5) of Sevier-age nappe movements approaching their 

foreland placement areas on and about the (Jinta trend 

basement buttress in the present Oquirrh Mountains.

132
112°30-

Rogers Canyon 

nappe

- 40°15'

Figure 7. The Rogers Canyon, Pass Canyon, Bingham, South

Mountain, and Fivemile Pass nappes, and the main mining 

areas in the Oquirrh Mountains. Shading is to help 

differentiate the nappes.

133
I I2°07'3(r

1 .5 0 1 Kilometres

Figure 8. Generalized geologic map of the Pass Canyon nappe 

showing the main structures and the Dry Fork (Pdf) and 

Flood Canyon (light shaded) formational units of Tooker and 

Roberts (1988). The adjoining Rogers Canyon and Bingham 

nappes are dark patterned.

134
nrorw

Figure 9. Generalized geologic map of the Bingham nappe showing 

the distribution of Paleozoic rocks and their major structural 

features. Main folds are shown by heavy lines. Adjoining nappes 

are shown by light shading. PI, Lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, 

IP Mm, Manning Canyon Shale, Po, Upper Paleozoic Oquirrh Group.

135
eroded

§sg

i . ' . T~T~r~T~

concealed

Mirkhim Pcik Mtnbcr

Blngham Mine Formation

Clipper Ridge Member

Commercial Limttloiit

marker tea 

Jordan Limetlanr

meilrr ^ed'

Butterfleld Teaks Formation

West Canyon Limestone

Manning Canyon Shale

Mertur Limestone Member £ 

-Long Trill Sh«le Member 3-

Sllveropolii Llmeitone 

Member

Humbug Formation 

Desrret Limestone

Gardlson Limestone

Fllrhvlllr Form«tlon «nd

Plnyon Pe»k Limestone, undivided

Lynch Dolomite

Bowman Limestone 

Hariman Limestone 

Ophlr Formation 

Tlntlc "Quartzlte

Q,

a 

&

c Ji

_

T

«i

u

EXPLANATION

E3

Limestone

Sandy limestone 

Shaly limestone

ra Dolomite 

Shale

E3

Sandstone

E3

Orthoquartzlte

Calcareous quarlzlte

E3

Chert nodules

Calclte "eye" nodules

Scale 

0 200 400 m

Figure 10. Generalized columnar section of lower and upper 

Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe.

136
Tootle Quadrangle

Explanation 

Sevier-age nappe;

South Mountain Rogers Canyon 

Blngham Pass Canyon

Qa Quaternary alluvial deposits. undiffcrcmiaicJ 

TV Terliarv volcanic rocks, undilTeremiaicd 

Tl Tertiary intrusive slocks, sills, and dikes.

undilTereniiaicd 

Pal Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, undirfcrentiaied

Scale 

.'.50 !

Figure 11. Generalized map showing the distribution of the main 

bodies of igneous intrusive and extrusive rocks in the Pass 

Canyon, Bingham, and South Mountain nappes in the Oquirrh 

Mountains, Utah.
1120 15' 1I2°07'30"

Stqlcktor^ Quadrangle Lowe Peak Quadrangle

A Lowe Peak

Left Fork West Canyon __

Pal

NJ.ercur Quadrangle

40°25'

40°22'30"

Ophir Quadrangle

Lewiston Peak

Porp-ry Hill

Rover Hill

Pal

Explanation

Sevier-age nappes Qa

IgSSgsS] Fivemile Pass

Bingham

Qa Quaternary alluvial deposits, undiffereniiaied

Tl Tertiary lamprophyre dike /

Te Tertiary Eagle Hill rhyolite plug^r sills, and dikes

Tg Tertiary granodiorite porphyrjvplugs. sills, and dikes

Pal Paleozoic sedimentary rock,.< undifferentiated

Scale 

0 0.5 I 2 3

Kilometres

Qa

40° 15'

Figure 12. Generalized map showing the distribution of intrusive 

igneous rocks in the Bingham nappe in the southern part of 

the Oquirrh Mountains.

138
Sevler-age nappes

Rogers Canyon Bingham

Qd Holocene. mine tailings 

Qa Quaternary,, alluvial

deposits, undifferenliated 

Qh Quaternary. Markers

Fanglomerate 

TV Tertiary, vocanic rocks.

undifferentiated 

Ppg Permian, Grandeur Member.

Park Qty Formation 

Fo Pennsylvanian. Oquirrh Group

.'undivided

Mgr'Mississippian, Green Ravine 

/ Formation

Figure 13. Generalized geologic map of the Rogers Canyon nappe 

in the northern Oquirrh Mountains.
1I2'30' I]2°22'30" M2'I7'30"

40"30'

Explanation 

Sevier-age nappes

South Mountain 

Bingham

Qh Quaternary. Markers Fanglomeraic

Qa Quaternary, alluvial deposits, undifferentiaiedTi Tertiary, porphyritic intrusive rocks

PPoso Permian-Pennsylvanian, Oquirrh Group, South Peak

unit of looker and Roberts (1992) 

Pos Pennsylvanian. Oquirrh Group, Salvation unit of Tooker

and Roberts (1992) 

For Pennsylvania, Oquirrh Group. Rush Lake unii of Tooker

and Roberts (1992)

Figure 14. Generalized geologic map of the South Mountain , 

nappe on South Mountain and west-central Oquirrh Mountains.
South Mountain 

nappe

/2>_/i

\

«» o

Bingham nappe

Si I

rft

EXPLANATION 

1 Ovirtzll*

8-andy llm«tlon«

J^lij *rglll.

. C*BM*I 

/ m.rk.r

Chvrly llmctlon* 

V«rlie»l >c«l> 

ZOO

I-II)

141
112°12'30 112°17I 30"

40°15'

400 17'30fl fExplanation

Sevier-age nappes

Fivemile Pass 

Bingham

Qa Quaternary, alluvial deposits, undifferentiated 

PMm Mississipian, Manning Canyon Shale 

Mgm PennsyJvanian-Mississippian, Mercur Member, 

Great Blue Limestone

Figure 16. Generalized geologic map of the Fivemile Pass nappe. 

The adjoining Bingham nappe is shaded.

142
Table 1. Main types of igneous rocks in the Oquirrh Mountains nappes

Location Type of body Composition Age in m.y.___Reference

BINGHAM NAPPE

Bingham mining district area

1 Last Chance stock Equigranular monzonite

2 Bingham stock Equigranular monzonite (border)

3 Bingham stock Porphyritic monzonite (core)

4 Dike cutting Bing. stock Quartz latite porphyry

5 Volcanic flow Andesite porphyry6 Shaggy Peak plug Biotite rhyolite vitrophyre

Middle Canyon area

7 Dike

Selkirk Canyon area

8 Tooele dike or sill

Mercur minining district area

9 Eagle Hill plug

Ophir mining district area

10 Lion Hill stock (?)

PASS CANYON NAPPE 

Pass Canyon area

11 Sill or dike

SOUTH MOUNTAIN NAPPE 

Stockton mining district area

12 Calumet mine stock

13 South Mountain

14 South Mountain

Quartz latite porphyry

Quartz monzonite prophyry

RhyoliteBiotite granodiorite porphyryLatite porphyry

Monzonite porphyry 

Hornblende latite tuff breccia 

Nepheline basalt

39 Moore and McKee, 198338 Moore and McKee, 198337 Moore and Lanphere, 197136 Moore and others, 196838 Moore, 1973c33 Moore, 1973c37 Moore, 1973c

38 Moore, 1973c

32 Moore and McKee, 1983

37 Moore and McKee, 198336 Moore, 1973c38 Moore, 197330 Moore, 1973b40 Moore and McKee, 1983

Note: Location numbers shown on figures
TABLE 2 -- LITHOLOGY OF LOWER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE BINGHAM NAPPE (Ciliuly, 1932; Gordon, looker, and Dutro 199 )

AGE FORMATION MEMBER THICKNESS

(m)

LITHOLOGY, AGE, AND CORRELATION

(continued on Table 3)

Upper

Mississippian 

(Chesterian)

Great Blue Limestone Mercur 437 Interbedded thin- to medium-bedded limestone, cherty 

limestone and argillaceous limestones, calcareous shale intervals;

sparsely fossiliferous with brachiopods, bryozoa, and corals; conformable contacts. Correlative in part with the 

Green Ravine Formation, Rogers Canyon nappe, and with the Chulios and Polker Knoll Members of Great Blue 

' Formation in Bingham nappe at Tintic (Morris and 

Lovering, 1961)

Long Trail Shale 29 Interbedded thin-bedded calcareous and carbonaceous

shale in upper part, thin- bedded fossiliferous 

argillaceous and silty limestone below. Upper and lower 

contacts are transitional and conformable.

Silveropolis limestone

Upper Mississippian 

(Merameian)

280 Interbedded thin- to meduim-bedded locally fossiliferous 

and argillaceous limestones, locally silicified, and calcareous sandstone or sandy limestone. Cherty limestone 

lenses common in the middle part. 

Fossils include brachiopods, corals, and bryozoa. Correlative with the Toplif and Paymaster members of 

the Great Blue Formation in the Bingham nappe at Tintic 

_______(Morris .TIUJ I .ovoring, 1961)_____________________

Humbug 197 Interbedded thin- to medium-bedded, medium-gray 

limestone which weathers brown-gray, and brownweathered qua4rtzite up to 30 m thick; occasional sparse 

brachiopod, coral, and bryozoa fauna. Correlative with 

Humbug Formation in Bingham nappe at Tintic (Morris 

and Lovering, 1961).

Desert Limestone 198 Very fossiliferous, thin- to medium-bedded, blue-gray 

cherty limestone with thin (1-2.5 m) bed of phosphatic 

______shale at the base. Brachiopods, bryozoa and coral fauna.

Gardison 

(Continued)
TABLE 2 -- LITHOLOGY OF LOWER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE BINGHAM NAPPE (continued)

AGELower 

Mississippian

FORMATION MEMBER THICKNESS 

(m)

LITHOLOGY, AGE, AND CORRELATION

Gardison 140 Very fossiliferous, thin-bedded toward the base, more 

massive sandy, and cherty limestones in upper part. 

Unconformable lower contact, conformable upper contact. Correlative1 with the Gardison Formation, Bingham nappe 

at Tintic.

Unconformity

Middle Devonian (?) Fitchville Formation 

and Pinyon Peak 

Limestone, undivided

56 Coarsely crystalline gray dolomite, weathers dark gray, 

one massive bed contains conspicuous white calcite fossil 

casts. Correlative in part with the Pinyon Peak limestone 

and Fitchville Formation at Tintic

UnconformityUpper Cambrian Lynch Dolomite 25-305 Thick-bedded, light gray dolomite with some dark-gray 

dolomite containing short white rods in the lower part, 

and with a few limestone beds in the lower half; is a prominent cliff-forming unit in Ophir Canyon. The lower part resembles Bluebird dolomite at Tintic; the upper part is similar to the Cole Canyon Formation, also at Tintic 

(Morris and Lovering, 1961).

Middle Cambrian Bowman Limestone 85 Mottled shaly limestones, infraformational conglomerate, 

and oolitic limestone; a shaly unit about llm thick is at the base. Sparse trilobite fauna. Probably correlated 

with Herkimer Limestone at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 

1961).

Hartman Limestone 198 Banded gray mottled thin-bedded limestone with shale 

partings, some oolites toward the top. Sparse trilobite 

fauna. Correlated with the lower part of the Teutoinic Limestone at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).

Ophir Formation

Lower Cambrian

98 Micaceous shale, sandy shale toward the base, contains 

several beds of mottled shaly limestone. Brachiopod and 

trilobite (Olenellis) fauna. Correlated with the Ophir Formation at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).

Tintic Quartzite

'Concealed

90 Thick-bedded, cross-bedded, white quartzite, which

weathers reddish brown. Becomes shaly toward the top 

and grades into the Ophir Formation. Correlated with 

______the Tintic Quartzite at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).
TABLE 3 -- LITHOLOGY OF MIDDLE AND UPPER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE BINGHAM NAPPE (looker and Roberts, 1970)

AGE GROUP FORMATION MEMBER THICKNESS LITHOLOGY AND CORRELATION

(m) ________ Unconformity (erosion)

UpperPennsylvanian 

(Missourian)

Oquirrh Bingham Mine Marham Peak 1311 Multibedded, intergradational, medium-to-thick bedded

orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite, calcareous sandstone, and thin limestone; upper contact is erosional, lower contact is conformable; sparse fossils include colonial corals, brachiopods, and fusulinids. Roughly correlative 

with the Kessler Canyon Formation in the Rogers Canyon nappe.

Clipper Ridge 910 Thick bedded orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite,

calcareous and quartzose sandstone, and medium interbeds 

of cherty, argillaceous, and fossiliferous limestones. Two prominent thick limestone marker beds at the base include the Jordan and Commercial limestones. 

Contacts are conformable. Member is correlative in part with the Kessler Canyon Formation, Rogers Canyon nappe, and the Salvation unit in the South Mountain nappe 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1992).

ON

Middle Pennsylvanian 

(Desmoinesian)

Oquirrh Butterfield Peaks 1177 Cyclic interlayered thin- to medium-bedded, locally 

crossbedded calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, and 

calcareous sandstone, cherty, fossiliferous, and argrillaceous limestones. Fossils include abundant coral, 

brachiopod, and fusulinid fauna. Generally correlative with the Erda Formation, Rogers Canyon nappe, and the 

Rush Lake unit, South Mountain nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1992).

LowerPennsylvanian

(Morrowan)

Oquirrh West Canyon 

Limestone

442 Cyclical thin-to medium-bedded, clastic, arenaceous 

limestones, cherty, argillaceous, and dense limestones, 

calcareous quartzite, silica-cemented sandstone, generally 

banded and crossbedded. Fossils locally abundant include 

brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, rare trilobite fragments, 

and fusulinids. Correlated with the Lake Point Limestone, 

Rogers Canyon nappe.

Upper

Mississippian 

(Chesterian)

Manning Canyon 

Shale

347 Predominantly shale with thin interbeds of limestone and 

thin- to thick-bedded dark brown quartzite in the lower 

half. Grades into dominant limestone in the uppermost part, transitional into the Oquirrh Group, West Canyon 

Limestone. Fossils abundant, include brachiopods, corals, 

and bryozoans.

(continued on Table 2)
Sheet!

TABLE 4. METAL PRODUCTION FROM THE OOUIRRH MOUNTAINS MINING DISTRICTS, UTAH

cu

(000 t)

MO 

(000 t)

AU 

(000 oz)

AG 

(000 oz)

PB 

(000 t)

ZN 

(000 t)

HG 

Flasks

BINGHAM

1863-1972 11973-1981 21982-19903

1991-1992 2

1993-1996 2

Total

MERCUR

1871-195061983-1990 71991-1992 2

1994-19952

1996-19976

Total

OPHIR and 

STOCKTON 

1870-1901 245

OPHIR 

1902-1972245

STOCKTON 

1902-1970 2 "

BARNEYS CANYON 

1989-19902 

1991-1992 2 1993

Total 

TOTAL PROD.

11,900

1,670

551579

1,217

360

',

27

13.253

3,639

616

973

>51

244, 4134 2,400'

? '

811

7,679

>8,600

10044

?

15,917 >387 18,997 261,503 2,400 1,000

0.2 1,100 223 1.8 

766.6 

248.5 

210.1 

875

0.7 3,331

3,200 >3,338

101.5

4.8

329

10.6

157

238395

46

86

790

16,026.40 >387 23,017.20 253,201 3.147.80 1,149.70 >3,338

'James (1978)

2 USGS (1883-1923, 1995-1996) and USBM (1924-1994)'British Petroleum Co. (1986) and USBM ('1924-1993)

'The UV Industries closed the Lark and U.S. Mines underground workings in 1970, ending

the main production of silver, lead, and zinc ores (looker, 1990) 

'Stowe (1975) 

'Kornze and others (1985) 'Shrier. American Barnck (1993, verbal commun.) 

'Kerr (1997)

Page 1
TABLE 5-- SUMMARY OF LITHOLOGY OF PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE ROGERS CANYON NAPPE (looker and Roberts, 19

AGE GROUP FORMATION MEMBER THICKNESS LITHOLOGY AND CORRELATION

(m)__________________________________

Erosional unconformity

Tertiary(?)

Unconformity, erosion 

interval

Unnamed 

conglomerate

Unknown Poorly sorted reddish-brown, limonite-stained

consolidated gravels capped by andesite breccia. M; 

be correlative with the Apex conglomerate at Tintic 

(Morris and Levering, 1961).

Early Permian (Leonardian)

Park City Grandeur 232 Thin- to medium-bedded, fine- to coarse-grained,

arenaceous limestone, dolomite, dolomitic limestone 

and interbedded shale, argillaceous limestone, 

phosphorite, chert, orthoquartzite, and calcareous sandstone partings. Beds are very fossiliferous, and lithologically comparable with the type section in t 

Wasatch Mountains. Unconformably overlies the Kessler Canyon Formations. Wolfcamp-age rocks an 

not -present here.

Unconformity

Late Pennsylvanian Oquirrh 

(Missouri-Virgil)

Kessler Canyon 2145 Upper part is thin- to medium-bedded, interbedded 

orthoquartzite calcareous, ferruginous, and dolomitic sandstone, and dolomite. Lower part is thick, silicacemented orthoquartzite and cherty limestone. Loca sedimentary dolomite breccia. Worm trails are comrr poorly preserved fusulinids in bedded chert layers. Correlative in age with the Clipper Ridge Member, Bingham Mine Formation.

(Continued)
TABLE 5- SUMMARY OF LITHOLOGY OF PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE ROGERS CANYON NAPPE (Continued)

AGE GROUP FORMATION MEMBER THICKNESS LITHOLOGY AND CORRELATION

Middle Pennsylvanian 

(Desmoines)

Oquirrh Erda 530 Cyclically repeated layers or medium-gray limestone and 

dark-gray argillaceous limestone, light-brown 

carbonaceous shale, medium brown and tan calcareous quartzite, crossbedded light-brown sandstone. Argillaceous and cherty limestones are abundantly fossiliferous with gastropods, bryozoans, brachiopods, and fusulinids. These rocks are the approximate age equivalents of the lower and middle parts of the Oquirrh Group in the thick Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountain 

nappes and the thin Wasatch (Mt. Raymond sequence) 

(Crittenden, 1959).

Early Pennsylvanian (Morrow) Oquirrh Lake Point LimestoneLate Mississippian (Chester)

Green Ravine

432 Interbedded medium- to light-gray, tan-weathered, thinto medium-bedded limestone and massive (thick bedded) 

gray limestone. Locally the limestone is cherty and contains bioclastic, crossbedded, and arenaceous layers and shale partings. Beds in upper part are more massive 

and less fossiliferious than those below. Cyclic repetitions of beds is common. Locally abundant fossils include bryozoans, brachiopods, and coral assemblages. Formation is an age equivalent of the Manning Canyon Shale at the base and me West Canyon Limestone above 

in the Bingham nappe, and the Bridal Veil Falls Formation in the Timpanoghos nappe in the Wasatch Mountains (Baker and Crittenden, 1961).

232 The upper part is medium-bedded to massive (09.6 to 1 m 

thick, medium-gray, locally fossiliferous limestone, 

banded nodular black cherty limestone interbedded with thin argillaceous and fossiliferous limestone beds. The 

lower part is 0.3 to 0.6 m thick limestone and shale beds. Limestone is dark gray to olive gray, shale is black. Formation is fossiliferous with brachiopods, corals, anc 

bryozoans, and is correlative with the upper part of the 

Great Blue Limestone in the Bingham ana Timpanogos 

nappes in the Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains and the 

lower part of the Doughnut Formation in the Mount Raymond (thin) sequence in the Wasatch Mountains.

Covered
TABLE 6~ SUMMARY OF LITHOLOGY OF PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE SOUTH MOUNTAIN NAPPE (Tooker and Roberts, 1992)

AGE GROUP FORMATION THICKNESS LITHOLOGY AND CORRELATIONErosion surfaceEarly Permian 

(Wolfcamp)

Oquirrh South Peak unit of 

Tooker and Roberts 

(1992)

1966 Predominantly calcareous quartzite, mediumbedded to massive, light buff-tan to olive-gray, 

weathers reddish-brown, thin surface rind, well 

jointed, worm trails common. Thin interbedded 

silica-cemented quartzite, fossiliferous mediumgray, sandy and platy limestones with fusulinids 

(mostly fragmental), calcareous mudstone, local 

bedded chert, phosphatic chert, and ferruginous sandstone that weathers yellow-brown; mostly 

covered slope. Age correlative with the Dry 

Fork unit in the Pass Canyon nappe. (Tooker and 

Roborts, 1988)

o

Late Pennsylvanian 

(Late Missouri or early 

Virgil)

Oquirrh Salvation unit of 

Tooker and Roberts 

(1992)

823 Interbedded calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, 

and sandy, argillaceous, fossiliferous, and dense 

crystalline limestones. Medium-bedded 

i]iKirl/.ite predominates ovor thn-boddod limestone and shale partings. Fusulinids sparse in the limestones. Unit is correlative in age with the Clipper Ridge Member of the Bingham Mine 

Formation in the Binham nappe. (Tooker and Roberts, 1970)

Middle Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Desmoines

Rush Lake unit of 

Tooker and Roberts 

(1992)

> 1,352 Interbedded limestone, quartzite, and occasional 

shale beds. Limestone is medium grained, 

medium bedded, locally with shale partings, 

often sandy, silty, bioclastic, and crossbedded as well as argillacous and cherty limestone. Sandstone has pitted porous weathered crust 

when carbonate cemented. Local interbedded 

ferruginous layers with worm trails; megafossils 

include colonial and cup corals, brachiopods, and fusulinids. Unit is correlative in age with upper Butterfield Peaks Formation in the Bingham

_______nappe. (Tooker and Roberts, 1970)_________

Covered